Official Report: Minutes of Evidence

The Chairperson (Mr McGuigan): I welcome Christine Henderson, head of communicable diseases policy; Dr Louise McCorry, senior medical officer for health protection and communicable diseases; and Noel Griffin, head of healthcare and EU citizens' rights branch. You are all very welcome. I will hand over to the officials for opening remarks, and then we will take questions.

Ms Christine Henderson (Department of Health): Thank you for the opportunity to attend the Health Committee to present the two statutory rules (SRs) proposed by the Department. I am head of communicable diseases policy, and with me are Dr Louise McCorry, senior medical officer for health protection and communicable diseases, and Noel Griffin, head of adult palliative care, access to healthcare and EU citizens' rights.

The Department of Health proposes to make two statutory rules. The first is to make hantavirus disease, including hantavirus pulmonary or cardiopulmonary syndrome and haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, a notifiable disease under the Public Health Act (Northern Ireland) 1967. That will require medical practitioners to share patient information with the Public Health Agency if they become aware or have reasonable grounds for suspecting that a person whom they are attending has hantavirus. The second SR is a consequential amendment to the Provision of Health Services to Persons Not Ordinarily Resident Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015, more commonly referred to as the "PNOR" regulations, to include hantavirus diseases in the list of conditions that are exempt from charge for treatment.

Making a disease notifiable supports a timely public health and Health and Social Care response, including access to specialist infectious disease services when required and enabling the surveillance and monitoring of the disease activity to reduce onward transmission. It also ensures that there is enhanced patient care and financial support, particularly where a patient is required to self-isolate or suffers financial hardship.

Schedule 1 to the Public Health Act (Northern Ireland) 1967 provides a list of notifiable diseases, and the Department can add and remove diseases from the list by means of an order that is subject to the negative resolution procedure. The power to amend the list has been exercised a number of times in recent years due to coronavirus, hepatitis C and Mpox. The inclusion of hantavirus on the list of notifiable diseases recognises the seriousness of the recent outbreak and will provide the necessary legislative framework to protect public health. The outbreak on a ship, where citizens from three of the four UK nations and the Republic of Ireland (ROI) came into contact with the virus, demonstrates the plausibility that a high consequence infectious disease strain of hantavirus could become a public health issue in Northern Ireland.

Access to publicly funded healthcare in Northern Ireland is based on ordinary residency. Anybody who is not ordinarily resident is a visitor, and access to healthcare in Northern Ireland is provided to visitors under the PNOR regulations. Those regulations make certain health services available to visitors to Northern Ireland at a charge that is determined by the Department of Health. The regulations also provide various exemptions from charge. Some services are always exempt from charge, and some categories of visitor are exempt from charge. Schedule 1 to the PNOR regulations lists diseases for which hospital treatment is exempt from charge for visitors to Northern Ireland. That list has been amended in recent years in line with the changes to schedule 1 to the 1967 Public Health Act.

That concludes our opening remarks. I invite questions.

The Chairperson (Mr McGuigan): I have one question. We requested views from the public via our usual methods and got none. Are there any negative views out there on this?

Ms Henderson: Given the need to make it as a matter of emergency, we did not consult on it. It is considered to be a technical amendment. Given the risk that there would be to public health if we were to get it, I think that —.

The Chairperson (Mr McGuigan): That supersedes everything.

Ms Henderson: Yes.

The Chairperson (Mr McGuigan): OK; that is fair enough.

I have no further questions. Do members have questions?

Mrs Dodds: I have one question. It is just as a matter of interest, because I have no issues with the proposal. If I am remembering it correctly, that outbreak of hantavirus was communicated via vermin in South America and spread on the ship. What are the dangers of it in Northern Ireland, apart from somebody who has it coming into Northern Ireland? Is that the main danger?

Dr Louise McCorry (Department of Health): That is the main danger. It is not something that is in the environment in Northern Ireland. It is a communicable disease that we could get through people travelling.

Mrs Dodds: OK. Thank you.

Mr Donnelly: We are going through the process quite quickly. Is it purely a precautionary measure? Is there a need for such urgency? What would the risks be to the public if we were to go through the normal procedure?

Dr McCorry: That is a really good question. The reason for making the amendment at this stage is the concurrent outbreak that was happening on the cruise ship and the fact that the incubation period is so long, that so many countries were involved in the cruise ship and that a lot of the nations in the UK and the ROI had cases and contacts. For that reason, we thought that it was prudent to do something urgently, rather than to wait. Given that it is a high consequence infectious disease that is so easily spread between people, we felt that we needed to be allowed to have that enhanced response urgently.

Ms Henderson: It has been made notifiable in the ROI and England, and we want to maintain parity with them.

Dr McCorry: To align.

Mr Donnelly: Are you aware of any particular cases or of the potential for cases in Northern Ireland?

Dr McCorry: Not at this moment.

Mr Donnelly: Not at this moment, but there is a long incubation period.

Dr McCorry: Yes.

Mr Donnelly: Is it eight weeks?

Dr McCorry: Yes.

Mr Donnelly: So, somebody may have it at the minute and not know.

Dr McCorry: We have not been made aware, but that is something that —.

Mr Donnelly: OK. Thank you.

The Chairperson (Mr McGuigan): Thank you very much.