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the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) and the Office of the Ombudsman (OO) signed in July 2015 has been replaced by the current MOU, which was signed on 7 July 2019.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