St James’s Hospital, Dublin has made a public apology to a transgender woman over her experience at its emergency department last year after she fell ill following gender reassignment surgery overseas.
In a public statement made to Paige Behan before the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), the hospital acknowledged there is a “lacuna in the care pathways” for people in her position.
Its management has apologised for the “unsatisfactory and upsetting” experience she faced and undertook to meet a trans advocacy group to discuss its concerns.
Ms Behan brought a statutory complaint against the hospital’s board alleging that she was discriminated against in breach of the Equal Status Act 2000 when she came in seeking emergency treatment on August 16th, 2024. Her complaint has now been resolved by agreement.
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Speaking to The Irish Times last year, Ms Behan from Ballyfermot, Dublin, detailed her experience after she fell ill on her return to Dublin, having been referred by the HSE for gender-affirmation surgery in Germany. She said she felt “humiliated” and “devastated” when neither the urology, gynaecology nor plastics teams would treat her at St James’s Hospital – the largest acute academic teaching hospital in the State – despite her being referred by her GP for a worsening wound infection at the site of her surgery.
Instead she was advised to travel late at night, while distressed and bleeding, to the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) at Holles Street, which St James’s Hospital said was “more equipped to deal with neo-vaginal complaints”.
She said no transport was provided to Holles Street, which was not contacted by St James’s to advise that Ms Behan was on the way. She was “understandably very distressed by this treatment”, her clinical notes from Holles Street stated.
Ms Behan said she believed she could not receive “basic care” because St James’s Hospital staff “didn’t know how to treat me as a transgender woman”.
“So they pushed me out to another hospital and didn’t even tell that hospital I was coming,” she said.
The case opened before adjudication officer David James Murphy on Monday afternoon, following a short adjournment for talks between the parties.
Ms Behan’s barrister, Michael Kinsley BL, appearing instructed by solicitor Seamus Hempenstall of Daly Hempenstall LLP said: “The matter has been resolved and the only action required is that a public statement be read out by the hospital.”
The statement was then read out by counsel for the board of St James’s Hospital, Mairead McKenna.
“St James’s Hospital acknowledges there is a lacuna in the care pathways available for patients who have received gender-affirming surgery abroad,” Ms McKenna said.
“[The hospital] apologises to Paige Behan for the unsatisfactory and upsetting experience she had during her attendance at the emergency department on 16 August 2024. The hospital deeply regrets the upset caused to Ms Behan,” Ms McKenna said.
“St James’s Hospital is committed to learning from Paige Behan’s experience at the hospital and has agreed to meet Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI) at Paige Behan’s request to discuss the concerns regarding the care available to patients who are returning from abroad following gender-affirming surgery.”
The adjudicator, Mr Murphy noted the withdrawal of the equal status complaint pursuant to an agreement between the parties.
He praised the “hard work” of the litigants in coming to the agreement, and commended their commitment to “improving the service to everyone’s benefit” before closing the hearing.
