Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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258. To ask the Minister for Health when he plans to introduce a duty of candour on a statutory basis for Irish health care professionals and administrators. [36889/15]

Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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259. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to introduce sanctions for non-compliance with the Health Service Executive's open disclosure policy; and the monitoring systems that are in place to ensure that the open disclosure system is properly functioning. [36890/15]

Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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260. To ask the Minister for Health the avenues for appeal or redress that are open to patients who feel that a health professional or administrator has not fulfilled the obligations under the Health Service Executive's open disclosure policy. [36891/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 258 to 260, inclusive, together.

A National Policy on Open Disclosure was developed by the HSE and the State Claims Agency and launched in 2013. The Policy is designed to ensure an open, consistent approach to communicating with patients and their families when things go wrong in the provision of healthcare. It is important that patients and their families are kept informed and that feedback is forthcoming on investigations. It is also vital that the steps that need to be taken to prevent a recurrence of adverse events are established. The HSE has now begun implementing the Policy across all health and social care services.

I intend to bring legislative proposals to Government very shortly which will facilitate open disclosure of adverse events to patients. The purpose of such legislation is to provide certain legal protections for healthcare providers for open disclosure undertaken in good faith and in compliance with national standards. This will provide further support to healthcare providers in their communications with patients and family members if an adverse event occurs. This will help to foster a culture of openness and transparency, which encourages reporting. The Ethical Code of Practice set out by the Medical Council also makes clear the responsibilities of doctors in relation to open disclosure.

A new National Incident Management System (NIMS) was introduced by the State Claims Agency (SCA) in 2014 and since June 2015 all incidents in the healthcare sector are now being reported directly on to NIMS. It facilitates more detailed and consistent reporting of incidents. The SCA and the HSE are continuing to work towards more comprehensive and consistent reporting. The NIMS is the national recording management system to be utilised by all facilities covered by the Clinical Indemnity Scheme to capture adverse events that occur throughout the public healthcare system. As part of this reporting process data is collected on whether the incident was the subject of open disclosure. It will, therefore, be possible to monitor compliance with the HSE's Open Disclosure policy by using the NIMS database and non-compliance issues can be addressed by the HSE.

From a patient safety perspective the key focus of open disclosure is on learning so that systems and processes can be improved in order to reduce potential future harms to patients. If a person is not satisfied that a health professional or administrator has fulfilled their obligations regarding open disclosure then that person has recourse to the HSE's complaints procedures. It is also open to a person to raise a complaint with the appropriate professional regulatory body or with the Ombudsman.