Meetings between the Department of Health, the HSE and HIQA are ongoing concerning the timeline of the publication of the National Standards for Safer Better Healthcare, IMN has learned.
HIQA CEO Dr Tracey Cooper told IMN that discussions took place between the three organisations as well as representatives from the voluntary hospitals and the private sector, in early February.
“[The discussions] took place in order to work out the timeline for Health Minister James Reilly to mandate the standards,” she said. “We hope that the Minister will mandate the standards before the summer.”
Dr Cooper explained that there are two parts to the standards.
“There are the standards becoming legally required, meaning these are the standards for the State and at that point, every healthcare provider has to start implementing the standards,” she said.
“Then, separate to that, is when we start monitoring. So it’s not all about [HIQA] as a regulator, it’s about hospitals actually implementing those standards, and every now and again HIQA will actually come along and check that they are doing that.”
Dr Cooper said the standards will outline to healthcare providers how to do business and what patients can expect.
“If the mandate is in before the summer, then we would expect the system to start implementing from that point. Over the course of the following months, we will start doing the monitoring programme against this,” she continued.
Dr Cooper emphasised the significance of the standards. “I have to say they are so hugely important. They will make a big, big difference. For healthcare, they are one of the most important developments, and will really improve safety and quality.”
A key aim of the standards are to create a common language to describe what high quality healthcare service provision should consist of and set out what patients can expect from healthcare services.
The standards will enable and support the implementation of national initiatives such as recommendations from the Commission on Patient Safety and Quality Assurance about quality and safety. These include the implementation of evidence-based best practice, national clinical guidelines and clinical audit.
