Health Committee invite submissions on the General Scheme of the Health Information and Patient Safety Bill

The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health is inviting public submissions on the General Scheme of the Health Information and Patient Safety Bill, other than Parts 6 and 7, which were previously reported on by the then Joint Committee on Health and Children in the 31st Dáil. The proposed Bill sets out to create new frameworks for the sharing and usage of personal health information, including for research purposes and for continuity of care.

The specific parts, under which the Committee are seeking submissions, include:

Part 2: Personal Data, Personal Health Data and Personal Health Information
Part 3: Research Ethics Approval
Part 4: Data Matching Programmes
Part 5: Health Information Resources

The General Scheme of the Bill is accessible, via the Department website, here

Written submissions should be sent by email (MS Word or equivalent) and should be received not later than 3.00 pm on Friday, 20th January 2017 to the following email address only HIPS@oireachtas.ie

Committee Chairman Dr. Michael Harty TD said: “As a Committee we have already begun our examination of the General Scheme of the Health Information and Patient Safety Bill through meetings with HIQA, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner and Department of Health Officials. It is now important to the Committee, however, that we consider the wider views of interested parties and we aim to do this through a call for public submissions.”

“Submissions to the previous Health Committee focused on the patient safety aspect of the legislation and a lot of beneficial work was done in this regard. In this call for submissions we are looking, more specifically, at data privacy and we now invite you to engage with the Committee and make your voice heard at this important stage.”

For further information on the process, see here

ENDS/

Media Enquiries:

Liam O'Brien,
Houses of the Oireachtas,
Communications Unit,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2
P: +353 1 618 4484
M: +353 86 189 5098
liam.obrien@oireachtas.ie

Committee Membership:

Chairman: Dr. Michael Harty, TD (Rural Independent Group)

Deputies:

Bernard Durkan TD (Fine Gael)
Billy Kelleher TD (Fianna Fáil)
Alan Kelly TD (Labour)
Kate O’Connell TD (Fine Gael)
Margaret Murphy O’Mahony TD (Fianna Fáil)
Louise O’Reilly TD (Sinn Fein) (Vice-Chair)

Senators:

Colm Burke (Fine Gael)
John Dolan (Civil Engagement Technical Group)
Rónán Mullen (Independent)
Dr. Keith Swanick (Fianna Fáil)