Minister for Health Simon Harris has today (Wednesday) launched the new Patient Advocacy Service, aimed at supporting patients who wish to make a complaint about care received in a public hospital.
The new service offers a confidential helpline with experienced advocates on-hand to provide information and support to patients who want to make a formal complaint to the HSE about the care they experienced in a public hospital.
Launching the service at the National Patient Safety Conference, Minister Harris said:
Patient safety is the cornerstone of our health care system.
I’ve met people across the country who have encountered difficulties in the Irish health service but have felt there was nowhere for them to turn.
This service will offer patients a helping hand when they are unhappy with the care they receive. It is free, independent and run by specially trained patient advocates. I am confident it will offer a responsive, compassionate and supportive service to people when they are unhappy with their care.
The Patient Advocacy Service, funded by the Department of Health and independent of the HSE, is a free and confidential service. The tender to provide the service was awarded in 2018 to the National Advocacy Service, which has many years’ experience of delivering advocacy in the public sector.
Louise Loughlin, National Manager of the Patient Advocacy Service, said: “We are delighted to be able to deliver a new independent patient advocacy service to support patients through the HSE complaints process.
Our patient advocates will support people to understand and navigate the HSE complaints system.
The National Advocacy Service has been providing advocacy services since 2011, and we are confident that this new service will be welcomed by the public and the wider health sector.
We look forward to delivering this crucial new Patient Advocacy Service in the coming months.
The Patient Advocacy Service confidential helpline, available 10am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, is 0818 293 003. To learn more, or submit an online query, visit www.patientadvocacyservice.ie
The Minister spoke at the conference, themed Learning from Investigations and Reviews.
Addressing an audience of healthcare professionals, regulators, policy makers, educators, researchers, health service managers and patient representatives, the Minister said: “This year’s theme offers us all an opportunity to reflect on what a safe health service requires – the ability of the health system, and all the people who make up that system, to learn the lessons of the past.
We must develop a culture of open disclosure. We shouldn’t rush to judgement but instead take a measured, systematic and timely approach to getting to the heart of the matter. We should then share and apply what we learn to similar situations so that other patients are not harmed and that health professionals can be confident in the safety of the services they deliver.
The Minister also spoke about the Patient Safety Bill, to be published in the coming weeks:
When this legislation is enacted, Ireland will have made another stride forward in terms of patient safety. I look forward to continuing to work with all of you on the legislative programme to support patient safety across the health services.
In conclusion, the Minister emphasised the need to support all health service staff.
This support is necessary, not just when things are going well and patients are happy, but also when patients are disappointed, and when incidents happen. Incidents may happen because of an error in the system that no one knew about, or a mistake by a healthcare professional, but we still need to support our colleagues in all situations.
Notes to the Editor
Why was the Patient Advocacy Service established?
Establishing a patient advocacy service is a Department of Health action in response to the recommendations in the 2015 HIQA report into Portlaoise Hospital, the Ombudsman’s report “Learning to get Better” (2015). It is a commitment in the Programme for a Partnership Government to establish the service.
How will the Patient Advocacy Service operate?
The Patient Advocacy Service has a team of patient advocacy officers, advocacy team leads and a service manager providing information and support to patients across Ireland by phone, email and through online information and in person. The support will initially operate nationally out of a Patient Advocacy Hub in Dublin.
What is a Patient Advocate?
A patient advocate helps patients communicate with their hospital, so they get the information and support they need to make a complaint about the care they received. Patient advocates do not take sides and will not act on behalf of the patient but will seek to ensure that the individual is empowered to have their views, concerns and decisions appropriately addressed.
All patient advocates in the new service are required to undertake a training programme put in place by the Department of Health which will see them accredited at QQI level 7 as a trained patient safety complaints advocate.
What does the Patient Advocacy Service provide?
The Patient Advocacy Service provides a free, confidential and independent national service to help users of public hospitals making or intending to make a formal complaint through the Health Service Executive (HSE) complaint process, “Your Service, Your Say” in relation to the care they receive. Patients can get information on where and how to complain about something that happened to them while receiving care, and what to do if they want their complaint reviewed. Professionally trained independent advocates will support and empower people to get their complaint resolved.
What does it mean for the health services and staff?
This new service will encourage patients to communicate with the health services first to resolve their complaint. The Patient Advocacy Service will build positive relationships with the health services, its staff and other advocacy or support services so that good communication is nurtured, and issues can be resolved efficiently and learned from.
How do I find out more?
To find out more visit www.patientadvocacyservice.ie or telephone 0818 – 293 003 between 10am and 4pm, Monday to Friday.
Patient Safety Complaints and Advocacy Policy
The Department of Health is currently developing a Patient Safety Complaints and Advocacy Policy that puts patients at the heart of any response to a complaint or traumatic event. The commencement of the Patient Advocacy Service is an important development in designing and delivering a service around the needs of patients and service users.
The service is one a number of initiatives taken by the Department of Health to empower patients; enhance the accountability of the health services to service users; and develop a constructive, learning approach to addressing and resolving mistakes and poor quality in the health service, including:
- A competency framework will see more than 100 advocates and health service employees trained to QQI level 7 accreditation, as patient safety complaints advocates by 2020.
- A process of review is underway, in association with the Health Service Executive (HSE), the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Statutory Instrument No. 652/2006 - Health Act 2004 (Complaints) Regulations 2006 with a view to enhancement of the statutory provisions for management of complaints within the health services.
These initiatives have been informed by the public and stakeholder national consultation which took place in 2017, details here