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.