Watchdog: Set up patient advocacy group within year

An independent patient advocacy group must be set up within a year to ensure that report recommendations are implemented because the HSE can no longer be trusted to introduce the reforms.

The Health Information and Quality Authority has told Health Minister Leo Varadkar the move must be made by May next year due to the problems uncovered by its Portlaoise Hospital investigation.

The 208-page report, which the HSE initially attempted to prevent being published, has outlined a litany of patient service failures at the facility over the past decade.