HSE spent €1.43m to hold TB man

THE HSE spent more than €1.43 million on 24-hour security and a private room to keep just one patient suffering from potentially lethal TB in hospital for two years against their will.

Documents obtained by the Irish Examiner under the Freedom of Information Act confirm the significant cost — which is the equivalent of €2,050 every day — occurred between late 2008 and November 2010.

The 680-day expense relates to a TB patient in his 30s who was held in isolation at a Galway University Hospital facility under section 38 of the 1947 Health Act — a law which its detractors claim is unconstitutional.

This rarely used section of the act, and the 1953 Health Amendment Act, allows for a patient to be held in isolation without their consent if they are believed to be infected with a dangerous or virulent disease that could endanger other people.

The €1.43m cost included €389,211 for 24-hour security cover to protect the person and ensure he did not leave before treatment was concluded.

A further €1m was also spent on a private isolated room in the hospital to guarantee that no other patient could be contaminated.

The man is understood to have been homeless, and had previously left the facility despite pleas from doctors. When he returned, he was forcibly restrained at the hospital.

A HSE spokesperson said the expense was accrued because the patient had “respiratory TB” and, as such, “isolation was necessary as a safeguard against the spread of infection”.

She added that the illness “could not be effectively isolated at home”.

While no patient anywhere in the country is currently being held either with permission or against their will under this act, the legislation has been enacted in a number of cases in the past.

The most recent case, which was revealed by the Irish Examiner in 2008, related to a patient held at the Mercy University Hospital in Cork between November 2007 and the middle of 2010.

A South African mother of two, who had a young child with an Irish man, was believed to be suffering from a multi-drug resistant strain of TB but was refusing to undergo tests.

Her mother took a High Court case against the HSE in relation to her detainment in December 2008, with her then solicitor Rachel O’Toole and senior counsel Marjorie Farrelly arguing that the legislation was unconstitutional.

Judge John Edwards ultimately ruled in favour of the HSE on the grounds that the public’s right to safety overrules the individual’s right to liberty.

The detention legislation can only be acted upon with the strict written permission of the Department of Health’s chief medical officer and the health minister of the time.

The South African woman who was the subject of the High Court case died last summer, after agreeing to undergo treatment, almost three years after she was detained.