�The Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney TD welcomed the report of the Commission on Patient Safety and Quality Assurance entitled "Building a culture of patient safety device".
The Minster said "This is the first report of its kind and it makes far arrival recommendations which when implemented will shock very positively on patients and their families."
"The Commission which was naturalized in January 2007 sets out a clear and comprehensive route map for driving improvements in safety and quality across our health service."
"Perhaps the most pregnant recommendation of the report is the introduction of a licensing system for all wellness services whether they are delivered publicly or in private. The current system whereby anybody can open a hospital for example, does not adequately offer patients the security they need and merit."
While accepting that the health system will ever be open to the possibility of human wrongdoing, the Minister said that "All of us working in the delivery of health care must make every effort to minimise error and maximise quality. A charge free reportage and management culture is undoubtedly in the charles Herbert Best interests of patients."
"I very often welcome the finding of the Commission that the absence of accountability arrangements such as quality assurance, clinical audit, measurement and monitoring which involve professionals, especially doctors, limits the extent to which patients can be protected. Recent patient base hit incidents privy be attributed in with child part to this. I therefore besides welcome the many testimonial they have made to address this situation."
"Recent years have seen great improvements in our health system. Life expectancy, survival from cancer, mortality from heart disease and many other measures have seen improvements which are greater than many other countries. What I now want to see is that we show similar improvements in the safety and quality of the services we provide."
"I desire to see a organization wide, countrywide patient-proofed health service that can be monitored and measured. This will guarantee that we move from pockets of best practice to a situation where patients end-to-end the country can welfare from the same high standard of quality and safety."
"One of the most uncouth complaints I hear from patients and their families is the difficulty they encounter in getting information. This study advocates exposed communication and I very much support the enhanced and meaningful involvement of patients and their families."
The Minister will now consider all the recommendations in the report with a scene to delivery it to Government next month.
The report is available for download here.
Department of Health and Children
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