Written answers
Tuesday, 11 July 2023
Department of Health
Departmental Data
Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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669. To ask the Minister for Health how many legal actions have been lodged against the State in regard to nursing homes and hospitals; and the breakdown of what type of cases are being taken. [33490/23]
Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The State Claims Agency (SCA) has a statutory remit to manage personal injury claims on behalf of Delegated State Authorities including the Health Service Executive. Accordingly, the SCA has provided me with the information set out below in response to the Deputy's question. I have been informed by the SCA that this information has been extracted from the National Incident Management System (NIMS) according to the criteria and definitions set out below.
Criteria:
• The explicit reference to ”hospitals” is interpreted as all claims notified to the SCA against the HSE which relate to incidents occurring in an acute hospital setting.
• The explicit reference to “nursing homes” is interpreted as all claims notified to the SCA against the HSE which relate to incidents occurring within a nursing home (HSE owned and privately owned).
• Contained in the figures provided are 161 notifications of events which are not within the SCA’s statutory remit.
Table 1 - Acute Hospitals claims received historically
| Incident/Hazard Category | Total |
|---|---|
| Clinical Care | 10,563 |
| Exposure to Physical Hazards | 2,618 |
| Exposure to Psychological hazards | 2,014 |
| Exposure to Biological Hazards | 790 |
| Exposure to Behavioural Hazards | 515 |
| Property Damage/Loss (non crash/collision) | 468 |
| Crash/Collision | 183 |
| Exposure to Chemical Hazards | 55 |
| Other* | 46 |
| Total | 17,252 |
Table 2 - Nursing Homes claims received historically
| Incident/Hazard Category | Total |
|---|---|
| Exposure to Psychological hazards | 47 |
| Exposure to Physical Hazards | 10 |
| Exposure to Biological Hazards | 5 |
| Exposure to Behavioural Hazards | 4 |
| Other* | 7 |
| Total | 73 |
*Other category includes legacy data, null and other categories with a very small number of claims.
Please note that the report includes all the acute hospital and nursing home claims notified to the SCA, against the HSE, since the inception of the State Indemnity schemes.The General Indemnity Scheme was established in 2000 and the Clinical Indemnity Scheme was established in 2002.
Definitions
National Incident Management System (NIMS): Incidents (which include claims) are reported using the “National Incident Management System”, hosted by the State Claims Agency (SCA). An incident can be a harmful Incident (Adverse Event), no harm incident, near miss, dangerous occurrence (reportable circumstance) or complaint.
Claim: A claim refers to notification of intention to seek compensation for personal injury and/or property damage where it is alleged the State was negligent. The application may be in the form of a letter of claim, an InjuriesBoard.ie application, or a written/oral request.
Claim Received Date: Official date that the claim was created on NIMS. If a record is first logged to the system as a claim, the "Claim Create Date" and "Create Date" will be the same, however, if a record was once an incident and subsequently transitioned into a claim, the "Claim Create Date" will differ from the "Create Date", with the "Create Date" representing the date the incident was first recorded, and the "Claim Create Date" representing the date the record transitioned to a Claim.
Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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670. To ask the Minister for Health how many concerns since 2020 have been raised with him in relation to alleged sexual abuse of vulnerable adults in care. [33491/23]
Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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In the health sector, a framework of standards, policies and procedures for the safeguarding of adults who may be at risk of abuse, harm and exploitation is in place. This includes:
- the HSE’s national operational adult safeguarding policy Safeguarding Vulnerable People at Risk of Abuse – Policy and Procedures (2014)providing clear guidelines for HSE and HSE-funded staff to follow in cases of suspected abuse or neglect of adults;
- a HSE National Safeguarding Office leading operational policy development and oversight;
- social work teams (“Safeguarding and Protection Teams”) in each of the 9 HSE Community Healthcare Organisation (CHO) areas;
- training programmes on safeguarding policy and procedures;
- Designated Adult Safeguarding Officers within many services.
The National Safeguarding Office is tasked with collecting and collating data in relation to notifications and referrals to Safeguarding and Protection Teams of alleged abuse and neglect of adults at risk of abuse. The Office recently published its annual report for 2022 which provides a detailed breakdown of all allegations of abuse received. Data shows that 4% of all reported allegations, 672 in total, had a sexual abuse component. Equivalent data for previous years is available at: www.hse.ie/eng/about/who/socialcare/safeguardingvulnerableadults/safeguardingvuladts.html.
Anyone who has a concern about the safeguarding of adults at risk within a health or social care service is strongly encouraged to make contact with the local HSE Safeguarding and Protection Team for that area. Contact for each of the teams is available at: www.hse.ie/eng/about/who/socialcare/safeguardingvulnerableadults/safeguarprotectteams.html.
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