Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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322. To ask the Minister for Health when the new patient safety agency will be established on an administrative basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54767/13]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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My Department is liaising with the Health Service Executive on the details surrounding the establishment of the Patient Safety Agency to ensure an identifiable and distinct leadership responsibility for patient safety and quality at national level having regard to the need for a robust quality and safety function within the new delivery structures of the Reform Programme.

Discussions are continuing with the HSE on establishing the PSA initially on an administrative basis within the HSE structures in 2014. This will allow the PSA to become an identifiable entity within the HSE and facilitate a smooth transition of certain functions undertaken by the HSE to the PSA.

The establishment of the PSA will be included in the work programme of the HSE in its Service Plan for 2014. The HSE is expected to establish a Board to oversee the PSA and to agree its initial governance and operational arrangements. The post of Chief Executive of the PSA will be advertised in the first half of 2014.

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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323. To ask the Minister for Health when the patient safety agency's work with the Health Service Executive and the State Claims Agency to develop a risk-based approach to provision of indemnity to services and professionals was completed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54768/13]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Patient Safety Agency (PSA) is not yet in place, but its establishment is a priority and is provided for in the work programme of the HSE in its Service Plan for 2014. Discussions are continuing with the HSE on establishing the PSA initially on an administrative basis within the HSE structures in 2014. This will allow the PSA to become an identifiable entity within the HSE and facilitate a smooth transition of certain functions undertaken by the HSE to the PSA. It is intended that the PSA will ensure an identifiable and distinct leadership responsibility for patient safety and quality at national level, having regard to the need for a robust quality and safety function within the new delivery structures of the Reform Programme. The main priorities for the PSA will be to ensure that patients, their families and carers experience high quality care, as well as ensuring the provision of care which is safe and protects patients from harm. The PSA will seek to ensure that the care provided is effective and based on the best available evidence and is integrated to support the smooth transition of patients across different care settings.

My Department is working with the HSE's Patient Safety Directorate and the State Claims Agency on the use of data which will be generated by the upgraded National Adverse Event Management System (NAEMS). Phase 1 of the upgrade of the system aims to provide enhanced intelligent adverse event entry screens together with enhanced and powerful reporting capabilities in locations covered by the Clinical Indemnity Scheme. The State Claims Agency has established an implementation group including representatives of the voluntary hospitals and the HSE. Training will be provided to those who are involved in the existing STARweb adverse event reporting system, and to relevant managers and clinical leads. It is also planned to introduce the system to the staff that will interface with the new system at "point of occurrence".

Phase 2 of the upgrade involves enabling the functionality on the system to provide end to end adverse event management, root cause analysis and policy audit tools. This will commence roll out in early 2014. The provision of performance benchmarks on clinical and non-clinical risk and claims performance, which will underpin a risk pooling approach to the Clinical Indemnity Scheme, will be developed during 2014. The roll out of the new system will commence with a pilot in a small number of sites, and the system will be expanded to all other sites during 2014.