Skip to main content
Normal View

Shared Services

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 February 2022

Tuesday, 8 February 2022

Questions (662)

Fergus O'Dowd

Question:

662. Deputy Fergus O'Dowd asked the Minister for Health the status of the memorandum of understanding, cooperation and information sharing signed in June 2015 between HIQA and the Office of the Ombudsman; the number of meetings that have taken place; the level at which they have taken place; the number of cases by HIQA and the Office of the Ombudsman in which information was shared; the number of cases in which HIQA has been informed of a complaint which had already been dealt with at local level since the memorandum was signed and transferred to the Office of the Ombudsman by year; the outcome of all cases; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6102/22]

View answer

Written answers

The memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) and the Office of the Ombudsman (OO) signed in July 2015 has been replaced by the current MOU, which was signed on 7 July 2019.

There is ongoing engagement and cooperation between HIQA and the Office of the Ombudsman, with the most recent meetings taking place on 28 June 2021 and 3 September 2021 between the HIQA Deputy Chief Inspector of Social Services and officials from the OO.

In broad terms, the primary role of the OO is to examine individual complaints, provide individual redress where appropriate and use complaint outcomes to improve public administration. In the case of HIQA, the primary role is to drive high quality and safe care for people using health and social care services rather than the investigation of individual complaints.

If HIQA is contacted by an individual who has already made a formal complaint to the provider of a service, they are, in the first instance, advised of the role of the Ombudsman. The individual is also asked if they wish for HIQA to share their contact details and the name of the service with the OO. If they consent to do so, the information is forwarded to the OO in line with HIQA’s data sharing agreement.

HIQA have provided officials of my Department the following table outlining the number of cases which have been shared with the OO since 2019:

Year

Number of cases

2019

30

2020

20

2021

8

In addition, the OO has shared the following number of cases with HIQA:

Year

Number of cases

2019

0

2020

1

2021

4

2022

1

All cases received by HIQA from the Office of the Ombudsman are managed in line with HIQA’s regulatory processes.

Top
Share