Varadkar to set out plans to improve patient safety

The creation of a new patient advocacy service to provide advice and support to users of the health service is to be announced by Minister for Health Leo Varadkar today .

The proposed National Patient Advocacy Service will be independent of the Health Service Executive and the Department of Health, though funded by the State.

In addition to providing direct support and information, it will record and analyse patient complaints as well as guiding patients to the agency appropriate to their needs.

The service forms part of a major package of patient-safety reforms to be announced by the Minister at a conference on the issue today. The measures have been developed in response to high-profile cases in recent years, including the death of Savita Halappanavar in 2012 and last year's report on baby deaths at Portlaoise hospital.

Safety advisory council

Mr Varadkar will also announce the creation of a National Advisory Council for Patient Safety to provide advice on patient-safety issues and publish reports prompted by specific safety information or trends. The council will have responsibility for overseeing patient-safety data to act as an early-warning mechanism.

As part of the new apparatus, a patient-experience survey will be conducted annually and the results used to guide policy and health services. The survey will use internationally recognised questions in order to allow international comparisons to be made.

The creation of a national patient advocacy service was the first recommendation in last year’s report by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) into the death in Portlaoise hospital’s maternity unit.

“This service’s role would be to ensure that patients’ reported experiences are recorded, listened to and learned from,” it recommended.

The service should be in place by next May, it also recommended.

The Portlaoise report found significant patient-safety issues were exposed only when “brave and tenacious” users of the maternity unit in the hospital highlighted their concerns. It highlighted the inadequacies in the way the HSE at various levels had responded to these concerns.

The programme for government in 2011 promised the establishment of a Patient Safety Authority, incorporating Hiqa.

Plans were developed to create a body within the HSE and former minister James Reilly promised it would be established on an administrative basis by 2013. However, nothing happened by this date and the plans were put on hold after Dr Reilly was succeeded by Mr Varadkar as Minister.

Mr Varadkar argued that a patient-safety body within the HSE would never win public acceptance. He directed officials to draw up plans for an independent body.