FAMILY SUES OVER HOSPITAL COVID DEATH

Further 20 patients set to take cases after catching virus

THE relatives of a man who died from Covid-19 after infecting his entire family when he was discharged from hospital, have launched a legal action against the Health Service Executive.

And the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal that as many as 20 former patients are seeking compensation because they contracted the potentially fatal coronavirus during routine hospital visits and stays, while several other distressed patients have also

lodged official complaints against hospitals. These revelations come amid growing concerns about how so many people are contracting Covid in hospital.

The HSE admitted last night that, since June, as many as 1,813 people contracted Covid while being treated in the country’s hospitals for routine non-Covid procedures and tests.

Up to 967 of these patients contracted coronavirus while in hospital between June and the beginning of this month. During a two-week period this month, nearly as many again contracted Covid while being treated in hospital for non-Covid issues.

A source said: ‘Many people are going into hospital for routine tests and procedures and they are contracting Covid and some of them are even dying.

‘Families are really angry because their relatives are going into hospital with relatively nothing wrong with them and then they are either coming out after being really ill with Covid – or else they are coming out in a box.

‘It has been happening since the summer when the hospitals were quiet and the numbers have being building up since then.

‘There seems to me to be a scandal here and it is not being addressed. And when the dust settles this is going to become an issue because it is clear from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre data that the number of infections in healthcare facilities is quite high. The whole country is closed down so it’s a mystery to me why these figures are so high.’

It is believed that as many as 20 families have instructed west of Ireland and Dublin-based law firm Damien Tansey & Associates to initiate legal actions against hospitals in order to seek compensation.

This weekend the firm of solicitors, which specialises in taking medical negligence cases, refused to comment, other than to say it would be legally inappropriate to comment on any cases it may be handling.

A source familiar with the legal cases being taken against the HSE, said: ‘There are about 20 cases so far and one of them is being taken by the family of a man who went into hospital for a respiratory issue that had nothing to do with Covid.

‘He ended up getting Covid while he was in hospital and the staff in the hospital told his family that when he was released he would need help from them when he got home. When he got home he ended up infecting all of his family and that meant a mother and six of her children got Covid-19.’

Between January 4 and 17, a further 846 patients picked up the virus during routine hospital stays. And it seems that most of these cases may have occurred in hospitals based in Dublin,

Co. Donegal and Co. Louth.

Figures compiled by the Health Services Authority show that there have been 48 Covid-19 outbreaks in Dublin hospitals, 16 in

Co. Donegal and a further 13 in hospitals in Co. Louth.

This weekend the HSE said it does not yet know how many people have died after contracting Covid-19 while in hospital, and health authority officials claimed they did not have any information

‘When the dust settles, this will be an issue’

regarding the number of official complaints lodged by patients and families over contracting Covid on routine hospital visits and stays.

The HSE insisted the high level of Covid infections in the community was to blame for the extraordinary number of people contracting the virus during routine hospital visits.

In a statement released last night to the MoS, a spokeswoman for the HSE said: ‘In general it is not possible to be certain regarding where and when a person acquired infection with Covid-19.

‘There is extensive testing of people on admission to hospital and while in hospital to help find people with infection as quickly as possible, so that measures can be taken to reduce the risk of spread of infection of others.

‘It is important to note that when community transmission rates are at the level they are, it is inevitable and unavoidable that there will be outbreaks in hospitals.’

Last night, some legal experts said that those taking pending cases against hospitals would not alone have to show how they contracted the sometimes-lethal virus but they would also have to prove that medical staff and hospitals had not followed proper procedures.

Medical negligence experts warned that courts may be inclined to dismiss cases being taken against besieged healthcare staff in the middle of a pandemic.

One legal expert, familiar with medical negligence cases, said: ‘I would doubt whether public policy would be in favour of suing healthcare workers, the very people we are trying to protect in all of this.

‘And I think people who may take these cases may have difficulties trying to prove they got Covid in hospital, whereas you are as likely to get it in the community as you are in hospital.’

Meanwhile, only four of the country’s eight taxpayer-funded hospital groups replied to questions about formal complaints lodged against them over hospitalacquired infections.

The Ireland East Hospitals Group which runs seven of Dublin’s hospitals, along with others, said they were not in a position to provide such information.

The South/South West Hospitals group said no formal complaints had been lodged at any of its hospitals over hospital-acquired Covid.

The University of Limerick Hospitals group confirmed it had received less than five complaints from patients over contracting Covid while in hospital.

Meanwhile, Children’s Health Ireland which oversees the running of the four children’s hospitals based in Dublin said they did not have any cases of hospitalacquired Covid.

Dublin’s Coombe maternity hospital, which is part of the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group, said it had not had any such complaints.

The RCSI hospital group, which runs six hospitals, refused to comment. So too did Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital and the Dublin Midlands Hospital group.

The Saolta University Health Care Group, which runs seven hospitals in the west of the country refused to provide any information.

‘Unavoidable that there will be outbreaks’