Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)
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644. To ask the Minister for Health further to statements in Seanad Éireann on 2 July 2014, when his predecessor stated "I want to put on the record of the House the fact that the Health Service Executive has confirmed that the healthcare pricing office does not - and I repeat does not - make hospital patients' personal records available to pharmaceutical companies, insurers or any other companies or entities"; whether anonymised health records of individual patients are made available to any external entity by the healthcare pricing office or any division of the HSE or his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30997/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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As my predecessor indicated to the Deputy last week, the Healthcare Pricing Office (HPO) has advised my Department that it does not make patients' personal records available to pharmaceutical companies, insurers or any other commercial entities. In carrying out its function and in order to protect patient identities, the HPO does not collect name, address or specific date of birth from the hospitals. All data held by the HPO are anonymised. The HPO may provide statistics on hospital activity to third parties, but, such information is of an aggregate statistical nature which means that patients cannot be identified. More detailed information is provided to bodies including the National Cancer Registry, the Health Research Board as well as researchers in universities. However, as stated, in providing such data, patients' identities are not included in the information.

The National Cancer Registry routinely receives data directly from hospitals, as well as from the HPO, in accordance with the Health (Provision of Information) Act 1997. Under this Act the Registry is entitled to access patient identifiable information consistent with its stated function without the need for patient consent. The role of the Registry includes collecting information on cancer numbers and types on a national basis, providing essential information in relation to cancer and to carrying out other functions relating to cancer control. The data items held by the Registry include demographic details (such as medical record number and month and year of birth), diagnosis details and procedure details for each cancer related admission. The Registry also collects and receives patient level (and identifiable) information from pathology laboratories, medical records, radiology and oncology departments, radiotherapy units and hospital cancer databases. In carrying out its functions, the Registry plays a critical role in the implementation of the Cancer Control Programme.

The HSE has confirmed no other division of the Executive makes anonymised patient records available to pharmaceutical companies, insurers or any other commercial entities.

The Information Unit of my Department holds a copy of de-identified record level HIPE data which has been stripped of name, address and day of birth for confidentiality reasons. I can confirm that the Department does not release record level data.