Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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173. To ask the Minister for Health if patients who have concluded successful cases against the Health Service Executive for negligence were consulted during the drafting of legislative proposals to facilitate open disclosure of adverse events to patients; and if not, the reason. [38713/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The legislative proposals to support open disclosure give effect to the recommendations of the Commission on Patient Safety and Quality Assurance. The recommendations state that legislation be enacted to provide legal protection for open disclosure undertaken in good faith and in compliance with national standards. The proposals take account of the National Policy on Open Disclosure and the National Guidelines on Open Disclosure. These Guidelines were developed by the HSE and State Claims Agency, incorporating the learning from a two year open disclosure pilot programme. They were informed by feedback following wide consultation of the document nationally across health and social care departments and services, patient representatives, patient representative/advocacy groups, trade unions, regulatory bodies and indemnifying bodies. They were also informed by evidence based research of best practice in open disclosure in other countries and learning from the Irish Hospice Foundation's programme on "Breaking Bad News".