David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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1170. To ask the Minister for Health when he plans to commence Part 8 of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 ; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21485/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Part 8 of the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act 2015 provides a legislative framework for Advanced Healthcare Directives (AHDs). An AHD is a statement made by a person with capacity setting out his or her will and preferences regarding treatment decisions that may arise in the future when he or she no longer has capacity.

My Department remains committed to commencing these provisions as soon as possible. The development of a code of practice to accompany the AHD provisions is a key piece of work to facilitate commencement. The AHD multidisciplinary working group which I established in 2016 has developed a code of practice for Part 8 and submitted it to the Director of Decision Support Services in December 2018 for consideration. When this has been finalised by the Director it will be submitted to me for approval prior to publication.

There are a number of other interdependencies which must be addressed before Part 8 can be commenced and work is continuing in respect of all outstanding matters. These include commencing certain other provisions of the Act outside of Part 8 that fall under the remit of the Department of Justice and Equality.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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1171. To ask the Minister for Health when he plans to progress the Patient Safety (Notifiable Patient Safety Incidents) Bill 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21486/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Patient Safety (Notifiable Patient Safety Incidents) Bill 2019provides the legislative framework for a number of important patient safety issues, including the mandatory open disclosure of a list of notifiable patient safety incidents and the notification of same externally to the Health Information and Quality Authority, Chief Inspector of Social Services and the Mental Health Commission, as appropriate, to contribute to national learning and system-wide improvements. This mandatory requirement for open disclosure will ensure that patients and their families receive appropriate timely information in relation to an incident that may have occurred in relation to their care.

The Patient Safety (Notifiable Patient Safety Incidents) Bill 2019will also bring the private hospitals within the remit of the Health Act 2007. The relevant provisions extend the remit of the Health Information and Quality Authority, allowing it to set standards for the operation of private hospitals, to monitor compliance with them and to undertake inspections and investigations as required. The Bill also contains provisions to support clinical audit within the health service.

The Bill was introduced into Dáil Éireann on the 12 December 2019 and passed Second Stage in the Dáil and is due to go to Dáil Committee Stage. The Bill is a Programme for Government commitment. The Patient Safety (Notifiable Patient Safety Incidents) Bill 2019was restored to the Dáil Order paper on 28 July 2020. Following Dáil Committee stage, the Bill will be progressed to Dáil Report Stage and will then go through all Stages in the Seanad.

The Patient Safety (Notifiable Patient Safety Incidents) Bill 2019is also part of the broader programme of legislative and policy initiatives to improve the ability of the health service to anticipate, identify, respond to patient safety issues and improve the quality and safety of health services for patients. Creating a culture of open disclosure and learning from the things that go wrong is the bedrock of making services safer.