Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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274. To ask the Minister for Health the reason for the failure to establish a patient safety authority as promised in the programme for Government. [3723/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Informed by the published HIQA investigation reports on various hospital services and based on analysis and discussions on patient safety priorities, I came to the conclusion that providing a national focus for patient safety is best achieved by strengthening the priority attached to patient safety and complaints handling within the delivery system, concentrating HIQA’s regulatory efforts on key patient safety challenges and developing independent patient advocacy supports. In order to lead and direct these efforts, Government has approved a programme of patient safety measures. These include the strengthening of my Department's patient safety role and functions through the establishment of a National Patient Safety Office (NPSO) within the Department. This would mean that the NPSO would have a broader mandate than envisaged for the Patient Safety Authority in the Programme for Government and would be firmly linked to the existing systems of accountability and performance oversight. My Department is continuing to work towards finalising the design, structure and work plan for the NPSO in 2016.