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

 

Face of Lighthouse

posted: 18/12/2008

Michael Edwards, who was the "face" of the HIV centre, London Lighthouse, warmly welcoming people at reception, has died. Michael Edwards, aged 63, was for nearly 20 years the smiling, welcoming face of London Lighthouse, the north Kensington centre for people infected with or affected by HIV. Diagnosed with cancer, he was given a year to live, but developed pneumonia and died a few days later.

Born in what was then southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Michael had Scottish and German Jewish grandfathers and two African grandmothers. He was the youngest of nine children, and his siblings spoilt him rotten. After a brief career as a dancer in Salisbury (now Harare), he came to London when he was 19 to train as a nurse, but health problems ruled out this career and he turned to hairdressing.

Almost 20 years of support

Michael joined London Lighthouse in 1989. He worked on the residential unit, where people infected with the virus came for respite or palliative care, until he was moved to the main reception desk, a job that suited him well.

He was very often the first person a visitor to Lighthouse, perhaps newly diagnosed, met, and the warmth of his welcome was something they never forgot. He could, when needed, be a tremendous pillar of strength, and he helped many people come to terms with their diagnosis, which in those early days could be a sentence of death.

His cheerful, friendly, charismatic personality touched everyone who came into contact with him. He had a wicked sense of humour, and was the life and soul of many a party. Over the past 20 years, thousands of photographs were taken at Lighthouse, and it would be hard to find one that did not show Michael's grinning face.

As well as working at Lighthouse, he was a part-time barman at Ted's Place, a gay club in Fulham, west London.

Michael always did things in style, and the funeral was as stylish as the man. A glass hearse, pulled by two black horses with pink plumes, carried the coffin, and the party afterwards at Lighthouse went on into the night.

source

Who's Best? Pink Paper Wants Names

posted: 31/10/2008

Pink Paper asks for readers' nominations for its "best of" awards for gay and other lbt services in the past year.

Section 6 - Charities and public service  is where you might nominate any suitable north west England charities who you feel have earned the praise.

We think a HIV charity would fit neatly in Section 6, question 3 - best health information provider

You can join the Pink Paper survey here