Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 December 2013
546. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Health his views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding the distress caused to families who have taken cases against the Health Service Executive; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53102/13]
View answerThe management of clinical negligence cases taken against the HSE is delegated to the State Claims Agency (SCA) which has a statutory mandate to investigate and manage these cases to completion. I am advised that the SCA, wherever it is proper to do so, based on expert medical and legal advice, admits breach of duty at the earliest possible opportunity to avoid distress to patients and their families. Many of these cases however, particularly those involving catastrophic injuries, are very complex in nature and require time to investigate the liability and causation issues. This inevitably involves some delay before a formal admission of liability, if appropriate, can be made.
In relation to medical malpractice generally, on Tuesday 12th November this year, the HSE launched National Open Disclosure Policy, Guidelines and supporting documents following on from a joint HSE State Claims Agency national pilot project in relation to Open Disclosure. Open Disclosure is defined as “an open 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”. One of the key recommendations of the Madden Report was the development and support of a culture of open disclosure to patients and their next-of-kin, following an adverse event resulting in harm to a patient. The upcoming Health Information Bill will contain a provision to afford some degree of protection for healthcare personnel in line with the Madden Report. This is also consistent with a recommendation in a consultation paper published by The Law Reform Commission in 2008 that “a statutory provision be considered which would allow medical practitioners to make an apology and explanation without these being construed as an admission of liability in a medical negligence claim”.
