Welcome to our newsletter.
As we move into the summer months, it is a good opportunity for us to reflect on what we have achieved, as well as to look forward to the new challenges and opportunities ahead.
In June, we published our 2022 Annual Report which highlighted the wide range of work that HIQA undertook last year. In this newsletter you will find an infographic that provides a snapshot of some of the key facts and figures from last year. To name a few, we carried out 1,329 inspections of designated centres for people with disabilities; 726 inspections of nursing homes; 63 ionising radiation inspections in public and private hospitals and dental facilities; 54 inspections of children’s services; and 20 inspections of acute and community hospitals.
The Annual Report highlighted how we continued to place a focus on safeguarding and human rights, including in the national standards and guidance we develop, and in how services are regulated. One of our key priorities in 2022 was enabling our stakeholders, and especially people using health and social care services, to express their views. The valuable feedback we received is hugely important to our work and to shaping sustainable change in the way service users experience care. We also commenced a new programme of inspections in acute and community healthcare services against the National Standards for Safer Better Healthcare, and used our position as a trusted voice on behalf of patients and the public to drive improvements in these services. We remain committed to protecting and upholding the human rights of all people using health and social care services in Ireland.
Over the past 12 months, we have been working with the Department of Health to prepare for a significant expansion of our functions and responsibilities. Among these is the Patient Safety (Notifiable Incidents and Open Disclosure) Act 2023, which was signed into law on 02 May 2023. This important piece of legislation expands our remit and places new requirements on providers in order to promote and uphold patient safety and transparency. This is in line with our mission to ensure safer, better care for those using health and social care services in Ireland. For health service providers, the Act will mandate open disclosure of specific serious incidents to ensure that affected patients and families have access to timely and comprehensive information relating to their care and to facilitate system learning from such events. It will also require public and healthcare providers to notify HIQA of statutorily defined notifiable events and extends our remit into private hospitals in terms of monitoring against national standards. Separately, the Act also introduces new functions for the Chief Inspector in terms of conducting reviews of individual resident safety incidents.
We have commenced a significant body of work in preparation for the enactment of this legislation including workforce planning and stakeholder engagements. We will provide further updates in future editions of this newsletter when the legislation is commenced.
In May 2023, the results of Ireland’s first National Maternity Bereavement Experience Survey were published. The Survey asked women and their partners about their experiences of maternity bereavement care in an Irish maternity hospital or unit following a pregnancy loss or perinatal death. The aim of the survey was to learn from the experiences of bereaved parents in order to improve the standard and quality of maternity bereavement care in Ireland. The Survey allowed us to hear about the experiences of these bereaved parents, in their own words, for the first time. Their willingness to share their experiences of such a difficult and painful time will help to shape and improve the future quality of Irish maternity bereavement care.
In response to the publication of the survey results, the HSE published a ‘Response to the National Maternity Bereavement Experience Survey’ (NMBES) Report, with information on the quality improvement plans underway in hospitals to improve patients’ care experiences. The HSE and the National Women and Infant Health Programme (NWIHP) will use the survey findings to inform and underpin NWIHP’s work across a range of current and future projects and programmes. The Department of Health will use the information gathered to inform the development of policy in relation to maternity bereavement care. Finally, the findings of the survey will inform HIQA’s own approach to the monitoring of maternity care. More information about the survey results can be found in the newsletter.
In this issue, readers will also find details about the National Engagement on Digital Health and Social Care – an engagement project that is a collaboration between HIQA, the Department of Health, and the Health Service Executive. The findings from a health technology assessment (HTA) on domiciliary (at-home) invasive ventilation for adults with severe spinal cord injuries are also included in the newsletter.
Finally, I would like to offer my warmest congratulations to the LENS (LEarning From Notifications In Social Care) Project Team, for their recent success at the Irish Healthcare Centre Awards where the project won the ‘Best use of Information Technology’ award. Congratulations to Dr Laura Keyes, principal investigator, Dr Niall McGrane, post-doctoral researcher, and Paul Dunbar, project manager.
Until next time,
Angela