Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 December 2023
219. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Health the number of persons and families who have taken cases, issued letters of claim and initiated proceedings against the HSE regarding the death of a loved one who died having contracted Covid-19 in a HSE-run nursing home, residential care facility or hospital. [55545/23]
View answerThe State Claims Agency (SCA) has a statutory remit to manage personal injury claims on behalf of Delegated State Authorities including the Health Service Executive. I have been informed by the SCA that the information contained within this report has been extracted from the National Incident Management System (NIMS) according to the 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)
• Claims which relate to incidents occurring within a community health organisation location/unit have not been included in this report.
The number of claims currently being taken against the HSE, notified to the SCA, which arise from the death of a family member as a result of contracting Covid-19 in a HSE Hospital, Residential Care Facility or Nursing Home setting is 51.
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. NIMS is the system used by the delegated authorities to fulfil their statutory requirement to report incidents to the State Claims Agency and for their own incident and risk management purposes.
