The Government has been urged to set up a redress board to compensate the thousands of people who have picked up MRSA in Irish hospitals.
The call came at the weekend from the MRSA and Families support group, which launched a new phase in its campaign to force the health service to take action to stem the rise in the numbers picking up the antibiotic-resistant superbug.
There were 586 MRSA infections reported by Irish hospitals in 2005, up from 553 cases the year before and from 480 in 2003.
At its second annual conference in Waterford, Dr Teresa Graham from MRSA and Families said the State did not seem to be prepared to take action to improve things unless money was involved. Her group had been campaigning for 18 months for action to curb the spread of MRSA, but its incidence was increasing and patients were still not being told if they had it.
"Really, this whole new strategy arises out of frustration. We have been in existence now for 18 months and the incidence of MRSA is going up. The State does not seem to understand anything unless there is money involved.
"We were hoping it wouldn't come to this. And in one of the first letters I wrote to Mary Harney, before MRSA and Families was in existence, I said: 'Let it not come the point where we have to have a tribunal of inquiry and a redress board. Please do something before that happens'.
"Now, I wasn't in favour of going down this road, but 18 months later things aren't improving.
"We are hearing from people they are still not being told or they are being sent home from hospital with no information. It is not good enough."
The group will discuss its call for a redress board and its members' plea for a judicial inquiry into the non-implementation of national guidelines for the control of MRSA drawn up in 1995 when it meets the Health Service Executive tomorrow week.
Asked how many people would be seeking redress if a redress board was set up, Dr Graham said the figure "would be in the thousands".
Ian Simon, a Galway-based solicitor, said his firm has been approached by up to 150 individuals seeking to bring claims for damages against the State arising out of their infection or the infection of members of their families. They included people of all ages.