The Acting Chief Executive of the Health Information and Quality Authority, Professor Jane Grimson, has welcomed the enactment of the Health Identifiers Act 2014.

Professor Grimson said that the creation of individual health identifiers is an important step forward for people who use and provide health services in Ireland. President Michael D. Higgins enacted the legislation this month following the legislation’s passage through the Houses of the Oireachtas.

Professor Grimson said: “The enactment of the Health Identifiers Act 2014 is an important step forward for patient safety and for quality of care in Ireland. The Health Identifiers Act 2014 provides the legal basis for individual health identifiers for health service users and health service providers. Individual health identifiers will be used across the health service, both public and private. Identifiers will help to ensure that the right information is associated with the right individual at the right time. They will help to reduce duplication and the risk of mis-identification at the point of care. The Act protects the privacy of individuals and complies with data protection legislation.

“HIQA has been working for several years towards the enactment of this legislation. In March 2009 the Authority published Recommendations for a Unique Health Identifier for Individuals in Ireland. Our view then was that the absence of a unique health identifier was the single most important deficiency in the health information infrastructure in Ireland. In 2011 we made further recommendations to the Minister for Health that advocated the creation of individual health identifiers for healthcare practitioners and organisations. In 2013 the Authority actively supported the Department of Health with the drafting and development of the legislation. The Bill's passage through the Oireachtas is an important milestone.

“HIQA is now in the process of setting standards for the governance and management of the identifiers. The Health Identifiers Act 2014, together with the Health Information Bill which is being developed at present, will help to ensure that our health care system will be safer and more reliable, leading to better decision making and ultimately to improved services.”

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Further Information: 

Marty Whelan, Head of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement, Health Information and Quality Authority Tel: 01 814 7480 Email: mwhelan@hiqa.ie

Notes to the Editor: 

• An individual health identifier (IHI) is a unique, non-transferable number assigned to all individuals using health and social care services in Ireland, which will last for their lifetime. Its purpose is to accurately identify the individual, enabling health and social care to be delivered to the right patient, in the right place and at the right time. Similarly, health identifiers for healthcare professionals and organisations are numbers that accurately identify the practitioners who provide health services (e.g. the hospital, GP etc.) and the locations where the health services are provided.
• The ultimate benefit of these identifiers to all those who use health and social care services is better quality and safer care.
• HIQA has contributed to the development of the national health identifiers bill which will enable the implementation of all three identifiers in Ireland. The Authority is currently developing information governance, management and technical standards for the implementation of the identifiers here.
• HIQA published Recommendations for a Unique Health Identifier for Individuals in Ireland (March 2009); International Review of Unique Health Identifiers for Individuals (February 2010); Recommendations for Unique Health Identifiers for Healthcare Practitioners and Organisations (July 2011); and Recommendations for Unique Health Identifiers for Healthcare Practitioners and Organisations Summary Report (July 2011).