Protocol reviewed

ST VINCENT’S Hospital in Dublin agreed to review its protocol for discharging vulnerable patients after a probe by the Ombudsman into how it handled the discharge of a chronically ill homeless man from Bangladesh.

The community group Cairde complained that the 45-year-old, who suffered from conditions including diabetes, TB, heart disease and chronic hepatitis, was discharged from St Vincent’s in 2008 by taxi to the Asylum Seekers’ Unit in Dublin’s inner city, where he was given money to source accommodation for himself.

He ended up sleeping on the floor of a friend’s house and had to be re-admitted to another hospital the next day. He died there three weeks later.