Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

In light of the Dáil rising today, I did not expect these amendments to be accepted, but felt there was an opportunity to put them on the record. We had a very good meeting recently with the Minister's colleague, the Tánaiste, along with Deputies Breen and McGuinness, on the MRSA issue. It is shocking to think that people are swabbed when they go into hospital and are proven to have MRSA. It might not necessarily be contracted in the hospital but the hospital authorities would know people have MRSA, and people are not being informed. One might be told officially that they are, but they are not.

I mentioned a case previously, involving a lady in a ward with four people. She discovered she had MRSA when the contract cleaner roared across to a colleague to ask what mop he was using and told him not to use one particular mop because the lady had MRSA. Another lady found out by being told by a junior nurse, months after her husband had gone into hospital and was not making a recovery, and whose condition could not be diagnosed by those in charge.

It is a very piecemeal approach. The Tánaiste was shocked when she heard about it. I am not a medical expert but it makes common sense that a patient who has some disease should be told straightaway. A person who gives blood to the blood transfusion service in the morning has his or her blood screened. If anything shows up, such as hepatitis A, or even AIDS, God forbid, the person is notified straightaway by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service and counselling is provided.

That does not happen in hospitals. The amendment which I had hoped to insert today involves an issue at which the Minister should look when bringing forward the full coroners Bill in the new year. There should be an onus on a hospital authority to inform families or relatives of those who have passed away in hospitals while suffering from MRSA that they have the option of a coroner's inquest. If a person dies a so-called natural death there is no need for a coroner's inquest, but if one dies a so-called unnatural death, the right to a coroner's inquest is there. MRSA was listed as a notifiable and an infectious disease in 1994 and 2003, or so I understand — those were the key dates involved.

I recently sympathised with a person in Carlow whose father had been in St. Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny and had been transferred back to St. Dympna's Hospital. When the man died, it was discovered that he had contracted MRSA in St. Luke's Hospital, a fact to which the staff in St. Dympna's were never alerted, so that the man was put into a ward with other patients. There was a clear lack of information relay. I do not know if that is because of snobbery in the medical profession, that it feels patients would not understand the long words involved.

There is an onus on hospitals in this area. People should be given information, and what they do with it afterwards is up to themselves. Many families are horrified when they discover, after a person has been buried, that they had the option of a coroner's inquest. Many people might not want an inquest, and that is fine, which is why I inserted the word "option" in the amendment. The amendment has not been accepted today but the Minister might consider drafting another such amendment to the Bill in the new year.