Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 126 and 127 together.

As Minister for Health I have always been and remain fully committed to open disclosure. This is demonstrated by:

- the publication of monthly maternity and hospital patient safety statements;

- the publication of an annual national healthcare quality report;

- the introduction last year of an annual patient experience survey;

- progressing a patient safety licensing bill to provide for statutory regulation of public and private hospitals; and

- progressing a patient safety bill to provide for mandatory disclosure of serious patient safety incidents.

On 8 May last, the Government approved the development of a new Patient Safety Bill. This Bill incorporates the patient safety elements of the Health Information and Patient Safety Bill, dealing with the external notification of patient safety incidents, clinical audit and extending HIQA's remit to the private health service. The Bill also provides for the provision of mandatory open disclosure which compliments the provision made by the Houses of the Oireachtas for voluntary open disclosure in the Civil Liability (Amendment) Act, 2017, which comes into effect on 22 September 2018.

My belief in mandatory open disclosure has been further reinforced by Dr Gabriel Scally's recent final report of the Scoping Inquiry into the CervicalCheck Screening Programme. The report provides an enormous opportunity to examine the system failures in the care process based on patient and family accounts of their experiences and incorporate the learning into ensuring patient safety is paramount to driving and shaping policy.

I have consistently maintained that creating a culture of open disclosure and learning from the things that go wrong is the bedrock of making services safer. Mandatory open disclosure, is an open and consistent approach to communicating with patients and their families when things go wrong in healthcare. This includes expressing regret for what has happened, keeping the patient informed, providing feedback on investigations and the steps taken to prevent a recurrence of the adverse event. The Scally Report clearly identified significant deficits in the current HSE open disclosure policy and HSE/State Claims Agency guidelines and these account for 5 of the 50 recommendations in the Report. The Report also makes recommendations in relation to the open disclosure policies of both the Medical Council and CervicalCheck.

The questions raised by the Deputy are service issues and as such I have referred them to the HSE for direct reply. However, I wish to assure the Deputy that I wrote to the Director General of the HSE in June last, asking him to identify a clear governance framework at national level for open disclosure in the HSE and ensure an update of the HSE Open Disclosure Policy to take into account the current and pending legislation. I also requested open disclosure programmes be in place at national and local level.

The Director General was also requested to identify a senior person in the HSE, with corporate responsibility, authority and accountability to deliver all elements of open disclosure, from governance, national roll out, compliance and resources, to be the point of contact for my Department. The HSE was also tasked with building capacity and expertise within the Organisation, nationally, regionally and locally to be prepared in advance for the requirements of the Patient Safety legislation.

I am also committed to an early evaluation of the implementation of the Civil Liability (Amendment) Act 2017 (Prescribed Statements) Regulations 2018 which will come into effect on 23 September, 2018.