Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 94: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the steps taken to ensure that all hospitals, including practices and procedures therein, are brought up to the standard of excellence in accordance with best international practice; the degree to which it is intended to take steps to bring same about in the short to medium term; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13098/09]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The achievement of the highest standards of patient care is at the heart of Government policy on the delivery of public hospital services. Patient safety has become both a national and international imperative in recent years, with increasing emphasis across the world on patient safety in policy reform, legislative changes and development of standards of care driven by quality improvement initiatives. The Government places great importance on the policies and practical reforms we are implementing to ensure patient safety and quality-assured health services. In the hospital system this objective is being addressed in a number of ways.

Work is underway in a number of regions to reconfigure hospital services. This process involves concentrating the more complex cases in a smaller number of more specialised hospitals. Importantly, it also involves developing smaller hospitals to provide a much greater proportion of less complex care, especially in day surgery, medicine and diagnostics. The HSE is currently progressing the appointment of Clinical Directors, whose principal roles will be to deploy and manage consultants and other resources, plan how services are delivered, contribute to the process of strategic planning and influence and respond to organisational priorities.

The HSE's 2009 National Service Plan includes a significantly enhanced suite of performance measures which include a number of targets, for example to increase the proportion of a given group of surgical procedures performed on a day basis, developed and agreed with reference to international best practice. These performance measures will be further developed for 2010 and subsequent years. The HSE has also recently published for the first time comprehensive information from its HealthStat system showing how 29 teaching, regional and general hospitals are performing against national and international targets. This information is designed to support continuous improvement and also allows for greater openness and transparency in relation to health services.

In 2007, I established the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) as part of the Health Reform Programme. A core function of HIQA is to set standards on safety and quality of health services and to monitor enforcement of those standards in an open and transparent way. HIQA has already developed National Quality Standards in areas such as Symptomatic Breast Disease Standards, National Hygiene Standards and National Standards for Infection Prevention and Control. Work has also commenced on the development of National Quality Standards for acute hospitals in the public acute hospital sector. These Standards conform to best international practice and compliance will be monitored by the Authority. HIQA also has power to conduct investigations into specific matters where there is cause for concern and three such investigations have been conducted to date. Recommendations for improvements in service standards and systems contained in the reports of these investigations are implemented by the HSE.

I also established the Commission on Patient Safety and Quality Assurance in January 2007 and it reported to me in July 2008. The Government recently accepted the Commission's report and approved the commencement of work on the drawing up of legislation to give effect to its central recommendation on the licensing of both public and private healthcare providers. The Government also supported the immediate establishment of a Steering Group, chaired by the Chief Medical Officer in my Department, to drive implementation of the report's recommendations. I expect to be in a position to announce the composition of that Group shortly. Work has already commenced in my Department on devising a plan for the implementation of the 134 recommendations in the Patient Safety Commission Report over the next two to three years.

There has also been considerable progress made in recent years in reforming the regulation of health professionals in Ireland. Legislation providing for the establishment of the Health and Social Care Professionals Council was enacted in 2005. The Pharmacy Act 2007 and the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 provided for new, modern systems of regulation for Pharmacists and Medical Practitioners. New legislation is in preparation for the reform of the regulation of Nurses and Midwives, while the regulation of Dentists will also be reviewed.

Part 11 of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007, once commenced, will place duties and responsibilities on individual medical practitioners, their employers and the Medical Council regarding the maintenance of professional competence of medical practitioners. Preparations are ongoing for the implementation of these provisions, which will be commenced in due course. I believe that all of these measures are contributing to an improvement in the standard of health services being delivered by our hospitals.