The Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney today Thursday 7 August 2008 welcomed the report of the Commission on Patient Safety and Quality Assurance on “Building a culture of patient safety”. The most significant recommendation in the report is the introduction of a licensing system for all health services whether public or private. It says the licensing system should begin with the acute hospitals and other facilities "based on analysis of potential risk to patient safety". The licensing system would be financed by a licence fee, to be paid according to the size of the health facility. It would be administered by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA). The report also outlines proposals for greater incident reporting and accountability in the health service in relation to patient safety.

  

The Minister will now consider all the report recommendations with a view to bringing it to Government next month.

 

A copy of the report is available at:
http://www.dohc.ie/publications/building_culture_patient_safety.html