An NHS trust in Northern Ireland has admitted that it was wrong to refuse a patient with HIV medical treatment, issuing an apology and awarding £4000 in compensation, BBC News Online reports.
A patient of Craigavon Area Hospital was refused an endoscopy. The Southern Health Trust admitted that this was because of the individual’s HIV status.
The patient brought a case against the hospital under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). This makes it 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. He was supported by the Equality Commission of Northern Ireland. This is thought to be the first case in which the DDA has been used to challenge discrimination against an HIV-positive person accessing healthcare services.
Normal infection control procedures are sufficient to prevent the transmission of HIV from a patient to healthcare staff or other patients through 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 expressed satisfaction with the ruling, saying that 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.”
Refusal to perform the endoscopy meant that the patient 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”, said the patient. 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.”