Opposition parties have called on the Government to implement as soon as possible the recommendations of a report on patient safety in the health service.
The report of the Commission on Patient Safety and Quality Assurance makes a range of recommendations, including the establishment of a mandatory licensing system for all healthcare services in both the public and private sectors.
Fine Gael spokesman on health Dr James Reilly said the commission had produced a “commendably substantial report” but he regretted there was no recommendation to establish a single body with the sole remit of monitoring patient safety.
“The publication of such a report highlights the failure to heed warnings on patient safety over many years and make improvements during a period of economic boom,” he said.
“Patients have been exposed to serious risks and their cases badly mishandled in terms of accountability and communication. This has been clear in the litany of misdiagnosis scandals which have been exposed and analysed in the recent past.”
Dr Reilly said the recommendation for the introduction of a licensing system for health services was “blindingly obvious”. This had been a “gaping hole” in the legislation establishing the Health Information and Quality Authority in 2007.
“We are depending on this same Minister now to bring forward the legislation necessary to underpin the implementation of the Commission’s recommendation.”
The Labour Party’s Seanad spokeswoman on health Senator Phil Prendergast said she hoped the Government would accept the recommendations of today’s report and implement them as soon as possible.
“This is one of the most comprehensive reports we have ever seen in the area of patient safety and if the measures now recommended had previously been in place some of the terrible shortcomings experience in recent years both in regard to cancer care and other areas of the health service might well have been avoided,” she said.
“Some of the recommendations may involve additional expenditure, but they must not become a victim of government cutbacks.”
Stephen McMahon of the Irish Patients Association said the report, when implemented, would "save patients' lives, protect them from injury, and save scarce recourses for other patients in need of timely care."
He said the publication of the report showed that patient safety has "at last been put at the top of the healthcare agenda".