Minister Donnelly and Minister Butler welcome government approval to draft Health (Amendment) Bill – Regulatory Amendments to the Health Act 2007
From Department of Health
Published on
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From Department of Health
Published on
Last updated on
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly and Minister for Mental Health and Older People, Mary Butler, have welcomed the government’s approval to draft a Health (Amendment) Bill intended to amend the Health Act 2007.
The proposed amendments to the Health Act 2007 are in response to a number of key recommendations in the COVID-19 Nursing Home Expert Panel Report, published in August 2020, which called for the enhancement and modernisation of powers and requirements within the regulatory framework governing nursing homes and the establishment of mandatory reporting to HIQA of key operational data by nursing homes to support service planning and policy development.
The proposed legislation will:
A small number of other amendments to the Act to provide clarification or enhancement to existing provisions including:
Minister Donnelly said:
"I am pleased to be bringing forward this legislation which represents another important step in the implementation of recommendations of the Nursing Home Expert Panel Report. I believe the proposals will drive improvements in the quality and safety of care for the benefit of residents, their families and the sector as a whole."
The proposed legislation is the first phase of a two-phased approach to reform the regulatory framework governing nursing homes. The second phase, a wider review of the nursing home regulatory model, due to commence later this year will consider a programme of longer-term strategic reform options, including pandemic learning.
Minister Butler said:
"This legislation will bring improvements to the regulatory framework and will build on the investments made over the last number of years to increase HIQA’s staffing capacity in this area. It will strengthen and improve the tools available to the Chief Inspector to make proportionate interventions to protect residents. Furthermore, the reporting requirements aim to aid more integrated national planning across the sector and to improve overall transparency for current and future residents."
The Health Act 2007 provides for the regulation of designated centres for older persons (nursing homes), persons with disabilities and children in need of care and protection. While the Expert Panel’s recommendations were in relation to centres for older persons only, the proposed new provisions are relevant across all designated centres covered by the Act and the intention is that they will, in the main, apply to them all.