MRSA claims may cost State €500m

THE Government could face a half a billion euro payout in compensation claims from MRSA sufferers if a test case against the State proved successful.

Fri, 20 Jun, 2008 - 01:00

One successful claim over the lethal hospital bug could trigger more than 1,500 cases against the State, with payouts running to more than €330,000 for each claim, including legal costs.

Ireland’s treasury management, which oversees claims against the State, warned about the potential costs.

“They’re not going to go away,” said Dr Michael Somers, chief of the National Treasury Management Agency.

“We could win these cases or lose them. It will be decided on some sort of test case,” he added.

The treasury’s State Claims Agency is facing about 4,500 claims with potential damages of €550 million.

These cases include claims for personal injury, damage to property against Government ministers, the Attorney General and health authorities. They include claims by gardaí, soldiers and prison officers.

A large portion of claims overall are medical-related.

The agency has sent special investigators into areas where “clusters” of claims occur.

Agency director Ciarán Breen told the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee yesterday said the State was facing 100 MRSA claims.

While this was a “relatively small number”, he said, one legal firm was building a significant portfolio of claims.

If there was an “adverse court finding” and a test claim was successful, the State is expecting to fight up to 1,500 MRSA claims.

This could amount to half a billion euro is compensation and legal fees, admitted Mr Breen yesterday.

Payouts would be significantly greater than the average €65,000 being paid out for residential abuse claims, Mr Breen added. “The court would be awarding a much higher figure, a multiple.”

MRSA can be fatal if it enters the bloodstream through open wounds. A number of inquests over the past year have returned verdicts of death as a result of MRSA infection.

MRSA is spread from person to person. It can be spread by an infected person touching sheets, bedclothes and dressings which then infect a vulnerable person.

There were 526 recorded cases of MRSA across 53 hospitals in 2007.