The Labour Party has called on the Minister for Health to make a statement on the action of a nurse in a Dublin hospital who refused on conscientious grounds to administer chemotherapy to a pregnant woman who had cancer.
The party's spokeswoman on health, Ms Liz McManus, said that while it was important to respect the rights of doctors and nurses not to engage in procedures they had difficulties with, it was absolutely vital that patients had a statutory guarantee to receive appropriate treatment.
Commenting on a report in the Sunday Tribune, she called on the Minister to indicate what progress was being made on bringing in legislation to deal with such matters.
"Failure to act, if that is what happened, would be unpardonable in view of the life-and-death issues involved. There is a clear responsibility on the Minister to ensure that all patients, but particularly the critically ill, receive treatment," she added.
A Department spokesman said there had been a case of a nurse refusing to give treatment on the basis of conscience, and the Department's management committee had discussed it. One committee member had said there should be an obligation that maximum staff would be available in such an event.
"However, it was decided that this was an isolated case. There was no evidence that this was a widespread problem. As far as this specific case is concerned, there was no problem in the treatment of the patient."
He said he would not disclose the name of the hospital. He also said there was no move to bring in legislation to deal with such a matter.
He said the matter had been raised at the Department's committee last October. "It was an isolated case, and there was no widespread problem. It is not a live issue. Based on examination of this, there is no widespread concern about this issue."