Meeting 7

Minutes of the 7^th Department of Health / CSO Health Data Liaison Group (HDLG)

Meeting on 13^th May 2024 @ 14:00 - 16:30

Attendance:

33 online, 14 in person

Overall, 47 people attended the 7^th HDLG meeting which was held as a hybrid meeting in the CSO offices in Ardee Road Rathmines and on Microsoft Teams on 13^th May 2024. A full list of those in attendance can be found at the end of this document.

• Muiris O’Connor, Assistant Secretary, Department of Health, opened the meeting, welcomed members to this HDLG meeting and chaired the first half of the meeting.
• Paul Morrin, Assistant Director General, CSO, introduced and chaired the second half of the HDLG meeting.

General Updates from DOH and CSO

• There is strong momentum in the European Health Data (EHD) space – timeframe up to 2030 committing to every citizen that each member state will provide them access to their own health and social care data.
• Health Information Bill is due to be published next month (June).
• HSE restructuring to Regions came into effect in March 2024, many implications for data.
• DOH and CSO collaborating on a pilot Virtual Data Room project.
• Jennifer Banim is the new Director General of the CSO.

The CSO has formalised a new health division, to assist wider health sector statistics.

Item 1

National Drugs Related Deaths Index

Suzi Lyons (HRB) provided the Group with an overview of the National Drugs Related Deaths Index (NDRDI) and outlined the methodology. It was developed in 2005 in response to the National Drugs Strategy. There was a discussion on issues related to data from Coroners (e.g. paper-based) and updates on current efforts to address these issues.

Item 2

HPSC Work and Data

Patricia Garvey (HPSC) gave an overview of the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), including the data collection processes, the enhanced surveillance on 39 diseases, obligation to notify, collaboration with European colleagues, and their information hubs and reporting. 80 of 89 notifiable diseases are on the Computerised Infectious Diseases Reporting system (CIDR).

Item 3

Outcomes for Health Graduates over the last Decade

Orlaith Hodgins (DoH IGEES) and Brian Stanley (CSO) delivered a presentation on the work done by the CSO, with support from the Department of health, on tracking medicine and nursing and midwifery graduates after graduation. They countered the narrative that a large proportion of Ireland’s medicine and nursing and midwifery graduates are permanently emigrating, by providing evidence on the proportion of graduates who remained within Ireland after graduation and showcasing that, of those who did emigrate, a large proportion (43% for doctors and 59% for nurses and midwives) later returned.

Item 4

PCRS Work and Data

David Stratton (PCRS) went through the core functions of the Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS), and outlined how they are moving from paper to digital. It was highlighted that schemes are getting more complex and there were questions in relation to eligibility compared with uptake and whether there were options to automate the assessment of eligibility.

Action items:
1. Circulate slides.
2. Upload minutes.
3. Organise next meeting for October 2024.

Attendance List

In-Person

Muiris O’Connor, Department of Health

Paul Morrin, CSO

Brian Stanley, CSO

Chris Ryan, Department of Health

Fionnola Kelly, NOCA

Fionnuala Donohue, HSE

Libby McCrohan, Department of Health

Michael Courtney, Department of Health

Orlaith Hodgins, Department of Health

Paul Rockley, CSO

Sandra Nolan, IEHG

Sanela Smith, CSO

Tomas Kelly, CSO

Trish Garvey, HPSC

Online

Augustine Pereira, HPSC

Bernadette Rock, Medical Council

Brendan Brady, Department of Health

Brendan Walsh, ESRI

Brid Moran, NOCA

Cora Rattigan, HIA

David Stratton, PCRS

Deirdre Lynch, CSO

Dr Mai Mannix, HSE

Éanna Ó Lochlainn, PSI

Eimear Leahy, HAS

Elaine O'Sullivan, CSO

Emma Burke, HIQA

Eoin Darcy, PTR

Fintan Stanley, ICGP

Gavin Lawler, HRB

John Heslin, Department of Health

Judith Szlovak, Department of Health

Kieran Culhane, CSO

Laoise Woods, Department of Health

Michelle Nolan, HSA

Neasán Mac Giolla Bhríde, Department of Health

Nikita Ellul, Department of Health

Orla Woods, RCPI

Paul Caulfield, Department of Health

Rachael Kelly, Medical Council

Roger O'Sullivan, Public Health

Sarah Craig, HRB

Sarah Crilly, CSO

Sinead OHara2, HPO

Stephen McDonagh, CSO

Suzi Lyons, HRB

Terri Raftery, NMBI