The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has today announced that Sean Egan has been appointed as Director of Healthcare Regulation.



Sean has worked in HIQA for the past eight years, leading on promoting improvement in the quality and safety of healthcare for patients most recently as Head of Healthcare within the organisation. This new executive management position reflects forthcoming policy developments that propose an extension of HIQA’s legal functions in the regulation of healthcare across the public, private and voluntary sectors including its role as the Competent Authority in regulating medical exposure to ionising radiation. Sean has been appointed to the role following an open competition.



Sean Egan, Director of Healthcare Regulation, said: “I am delighted to take on this role to improve the safety and quality of healthcare for the people of Ireland, building on our work in key areas such as the prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections and maternity care. This is an exciting time for the organisation as HIQA’s remit continues to expand as the regulator of patient safety and medical exposures to ionising radiation.



“I look forward to working with the Government to progress the implementation of monitoring and regulation in public and private healthcare, to ensure HIQA has adequate powers of licencing and enforcement in order to safeguard the people using healthcare services.”



Phelim Quinn, CEO of HIQA, said: “We welcome Sean to the organisation’s Executive Management Team and look forward to working with him as HIQA’s remit is set to expand substantially in this area. Sean brings a wealth of experience and insight to the role which will serve the organisation well at this time of change.”



Ends.

For further information please contact:

Marty Whelan, Head of Communications & Stakeholder Engagement

01 814 7480/085 805 5202, mwhelan@hiqa.ie

Notes to Editor:

• Planned legislation of relevance to HIQA’s future role in the healthcare setting include the Patient Safety Licensing Bill and the Patient Safety (Notifications) Bill, with both pieces of legislation currently progressing through the legislative process. It also includes the Human Tissue (Transplantation, Post-Mortem, Anatomical Examination and Public Display) Bill (2018) and a request from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth that HIQA’s powers are extended to undertake inspection of reception and integration centres.
• The Patient Safety (Licensing) Bill intends that healthcare services be licensed by HIQA. This legislation will also confer HIQA with enforcement powers in healthcare services for the first time.
• The Patient Safety (Notifications) Bill will require healthcare providers to mandatorily report certain serious patient safety incidents to HIQA.