Call to review reports of abuse
The Disability Federation of Ireland said the move is needed after the Health Information Quality Authority (Hiqa) and the ombudsman gave contradictory views of how they should interact when complaints are made.
Hiqa is tasked with examining and regulating services, while the ombudsman is obliged to investigate individual complaints. In recent days, Fine Gael TD Fergus O’Dowd has alleged that as many as 160 complaints were made to Hiqa in the past year but were not investigated because they fell outside the body’s remit, a situation the watchdog denies.
Ombudsman Peter Tyndall told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland his group has a formal agreement with Hiqa to be informed of any such complaints if they are made, but this was not taking place.
“It’s not happening in practice because they have had those complaints and they are not reaching us… Hiqa should be contacting us and I don’t know why this hasn’t happened.”
However, in a statement, Hiqa stressed that while a “draft document” on the matter has been drawn up “it does not set out any requirement for Hiqa to share or pass on complaints”.
It added that when Hiqa receives individual complaints, it is obliged to pass the information back to the “relevant service provider”, which is then asked to “investigate through its own complaints procedure”.
If the parties cannot resolve the situation, the service provider is required to inform the person they can contact the ombudsman.
A spokesperson for the ombudsman stopped short of accepting complaints could be falling between the cracks because of a misunderstanding between the bodies.
However, Disability Federation of Ireland chief executive John Dolan said the situation meant Hiqa must now “look back in its postbox” to make sure no complaints have been missed.
He said “there may have been cases where the ball was dropped”.
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