Hospital Pays for Refusing Treatment
posted: 29/04/2009
An NHS trust in Northern Ireland admitted that it was wrong to refuse a person with HIV medical treatment, has apologised, and paid £4000 compensation.
The man was refused an endoscopy by staff at Craigavon hospital, Portadown.
An endoscopy is a way of looking inside your body with a thin, long, flexible tube containing a tiny light and video camera. The doctor can explore and see what is going on inside you on a TV screen. The Southern Health Trust admitted they refused the endoscopy only because the man has HIV.
He complained of disability discrimination – it is illegal to discriminate against people with HIV from the moment of their diagnosis in health care, employment, education, and the delivery of good and services. His formal complaint was supported by the Equality Commission of Northern Ireland.
No risk
Normal infection control procedures are sufficient to prevent the transmission of HIV to healthcare staff or other patients from endoscopies or other medical procedures.
Southern Health Trust settled the civil court case saying that the behaviour of staff at Craigavon Area Hospital had been “entirely inappropriate.”
A spokesperson for the Equality Commission said the Disability Discrimination Act “was designed to break down barriers to stigma, and fear that prevent people with HIV from accessing services…we are pleased the Southern Health and Social Care Trust has recognised this and agreed to liaise with the Equality Commission to review its practices and procedures and ensure that they are effective and conform to the law.”
Four months wait for second best
Refusal to perform the endoscopy meant he had to wait four months to have an alternative procedure. “The denial of this procedure, and the length of time involved in my treatment, created a great deal of anxiety and distress”, he said. He added “the hospital has confirmed to me that they have the facilities and appropriate procedures in place to perform the endoscopy on patients with HIV and I believe that they should have followed those procedures in my case and respected my dignity as a patient in their care. Thankfully my treatment has now been completed but I wouldn't want other HIV patients to go through a similar experience."
Apology and compensation
The Trust apologised to him for the injury to his feelings and distress experienced by him as a result as it settled his claim in the county court for £4000. It also agreed to undertake a review of its policies which might affect services for people living with HIV.
Stigma
"We have accepted that [he] should have received his treatment without delay and have apologised to him for not providing the high standard of care that every patient has a right to expect," said the spokesperson. "The trust is committed to treating all patients who need our help, and we have an excellent record in improving access to our services for patients with a range of disabilities."
Equality Commission casework director Anne McKernan said people with HIV were given clear protection from discrimination under changes introduced in 2007. "This change to the law was designed to break down the barriers of stigma, and fear which have prevented people with HIV from accessing many services, such as housing, education or, as in [his] case, appropriate medical services," Ms McKernan said.
"We are pleased the Southern Health and Social Care Trust has recognised this and agreed to liaise with the Equality Commission to review its practices and procedures and ensure they are effective and conform with the law."
George House Trust comment
The NHS collects the largest number of complaints about HIV stigma and discrimination – it’s a very big organisation and everyone diagnosed has regular dealings with the NHS. The complaints are not about HIV clinics or STI clinics (or very rarely), but about dentists, GPs and other parts of hospitals – like in this case where an endoscopy was refused.
This case shows it can pay to complain. The hospital has had a major wake up call and has to review its policy and practice with the Equalities Commission. We hope this will now means that HIV+ people using this hospital are always treated respectfully and fairly in future.
The man who complained needs applauding. £4000 is not a great deal, but he got the apology he was after, and some reassurance that they won’t stigmatise and discriminate against other people living with HIV in the district.
We believe the hospital staff need better HIV awareness and training. This is not on the list of things the Equalities Commission will now be checking with the Trust. They'll be checking the policies and this does need doing, but what the incident really reveals is the attitudes and knowledege of ordinary nursing and other clinical staff that really needs attention. It wasn't the hospital's formal policy to refuse the endoscopy, it was a member of staff behaving unprofessionally and the wider clinical team's failure to challenge that refusal of necessary treatment and care.
Source - aidsmap
Source - BBC
Photo - David Morley architects
Permalink