Health Information Bill 2024: From the Seanad

I thank Deputies for attending this evening and for their continued support of the Bill. The Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, brought forward a small number of amendments on Committee Stage in the Seanad to strengthen a number of important provisions, the details of which I can set out briefly. Seanad amendments Nos. 1 and 2 relate to the power of the HSE under the Bill to request health information for important public interest purposes beyond treatment and care.

Our health system needs a robust and proven identifier in order that health information can, effectively and reliably, be associated with the right individual. This is essential for care and treatment as well as patient safety. As part of this, the Bill aims to enhance patient safety through stronger identification processes, including best-practice use of the personal public service number and eircode to uniquely identify patients.

Seanad amendment No. 4 relates to the power of the HSE to use the electronic health record for specified public interest purposes. As the Minister outlined on Second Stage in the Seanad, there are a number of critical building blocks on the path to the full digitalisation of health records. One is the patient app, which now has over 157,000 users.

This Bill, which will establish a legal duty to share information, represents a significant opportunity to move towards a more connected health service that fully embraces the potential of quality electronic health data collected in the health system every day. In so doing, it will lay the foundations for a much more innovative and efficient health service which, above all, centres on the patient. I thank all Deputies for their engagement and for their contributions to the debate on and support in respect of this significant legislation. I look forward to its enactment.