Welcome to our newsletter.
Our core focus in HIQA has always been to safeguard people in Ireland’s health and social care services, and this year we put particular focus on upholding the human rights of people, particularly for those people who may be vulnerable.
We have seen the culmination of this work over the past few weeks in a number of projects. One such example is the National Standards for Adult Safeguarding, a joint initiative with the Mental Health Commission.
We hope that these standards will be one way in which abuse and neglect can be actively minimised and prevented in health and social care services. While HIQA welcomes the Department of Health’s commitment to developing policy and legislation in this area, we urge for this to be progressed as quickly as possible.
Similarly, the recent launch of the Guidance on a Human Rights-Based Approach in Health and Social Care Services, developed in collaboration with Safeguarding Ireland, with the support of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, aims to drive quality improvements by supporting services to critically reflect on their work. This guidance was published last month, and we look forward to seeing the principles of human rights implemented in practice.
We also recently launched the results of the third National Inpatient Experience Survey. A joint project between HIQA, the Health Service Executive (HSE) and Department of Health, the survey focuses on the key areas of privacy, dignity, respect and autonomy. Every year it provides rich feedback from patients on what’s working well in Ireland’s hospitals and what could be improved. We look forward to continuing to work with our colleagues in the HSE and Department as we expand into the first maternity experience survey in early 2020, followed by surveys to capture the care experiences of women who have been bereaved by stillbirth and neonatal death; families’ experiences of end-of-life care; and the experience of older persons’ services.
We also continue our work to influence policy in the areas of health technologies, and eHealth, as seen by our recent advice to the Minister for Health and HSE on Tavi, and our review of information management at CIDR.
As the year comes to a close I would like to thank the wide range of stakeholders who have engaged with us over the past year. To all those who we met on inspection, working or living in services; those who attended our many forums, roadshows and events across the country; and those who have actively participated in informing our work through consultations and correspondence — thank you.
I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and New Year.
Phelim Quinn, CEO