Health Committee to examine proposed legislation on health information and patient safety

The Joint Committee on Health will tomorrow meet with representatives of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner and Officials from the Department of Health to conduct pre-legislative scrutiny on the General Scheme of the Health Information and Patient Safety Bill.

The meeting will take place across two sessions. Session A, with Officials from the Department of Health will commence at 1.30pm in Committee Room 3 tomorrow, Wednesday, 14 December 2016. Session B, with representatives of HIQA and the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner will commence at 3.00pm.

Committee Vice-Chair, Louise O’Reilly TD, said “Tomorrow's meeting provides an opportunity for Committee members to engage fully in an important part of the legislative process. It allows for the introduction of informed and considered legislation that has been drawn up in conjunction with those that it will impact upon.”

“The General Scheme of the Health Information and Patient Safety Bill sets out headings in relation to personal data, research ethics, data matching programmes, information resources, patient safety and audit. We welcome the opportunity to now engage with HIQA, the Data Protection Commissioner and Department Officials to hear their expert opinion on how this piece of legislation should be formed.”

Committee proceedings can be viewed live here.

Committee proceedings can also be viewed on the move, through the Houses of the Oireachtas Smartphone App, available for Apple and Android devices.

Ends