Outraged relatives attack Leas Cross report
Outraged relatives of elderly people who died in the care of Leas Cross Nursing Home tonight dismissed an official inquiry in to the scandal as a whitewash.
Grieving sons and daughters criticised the state-appointed investigation for protecting the identity of health workers and chiefs responsible for allowing a catalogue of neglect to go undetected for years.
The north Co Dublin home was shut down in August 2005 after an RTE undercover investigation disclosed sub-standard care and management deficiencies.
It later emerged 105 patients died at the nursing home between 2002 and 2004, many showing symptoms of grave neglect including bed sores, dehydration and malnutrition.
The Leas Cross inquiry today found insufficient numbers of competent staff led to a serious deterioration in the standard of care in the two years before the home closed.
Inspections and complaints going back over a number of years should have alerted health chiefs to problems at the facility, it stated.
Tony Mullins, whose 82-year-old mother Kitty died at the facility in February 2004, said it was disgraceful staff in the Health Service Executive (HSE) could neglect their job and remain anonymous.
“The report confirms abuse, it confirms the absolute incompetence and neglect by the HSE to fulfil its duties, I don’t understand that,” said Mr Mullins, of the Leas Cross Deaths Relatives Action Group.
“It’s extraordinary what you can get away with in the HSE, it’s almost like they are some evil empire like the KGB. There’s no accountability and there’s no political will for accountability.”
Age Action said vulnerable residents who suffered sub-standard care were seriously betrayed by those responsible for managing the home and regulating standards there.
“The arms of the state responsible for protecting these people let them down, and let them down in a major way,” said spokesman Eamon Timmins.
“It is unclear if the systemic failures would have hidden the problem if it had not been for the media.”
The Commission of Inquiry into the Leas Cross Nursing Home was set up two years ago to investigate the management, operation and supervision of the facility.
Sole member Diarmuid O’Donovan SC made findings against the owner of Leas Cross, John Aherne, the former Northern Area Health Board (NAHB), its replacement the HSE, and Beaumont Hospital.
The home, near Swords, opened in 1998 with 38 beds.
Mr O’Donovan found the registration of 73 additional beds in 2002 was granted by the Northern Area Health without adequate regard to the wellbeing of the residents.
He said the decline in standards of care coincided with a rise in the number of frail, high dependency residents admitted to the home – the majority from St Ita’s Hospital in Portrane suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease - over the following two years.
Medics in Beaumont Hospital also came under fire for failing to raise concerns about the recurring pattern of residents being admitted from Leas Cross with pressure sores, dehydration and urinary tract infections.
Mr Mullins said serious questions had be asked by medical personnel, particularly those working in Beaumont.
“I believe as of today no nurse or doctor has been sanctioned or criticised in any official report in relation to the Leas Cross disaster,” he continued.
“Not one person that I’m aware of has been found guilty of any misconduct. So what does that mean for the regulation of the medical profession?”
Mr Mullins also claimed family members were only handed copies of the report hours before it was published and attacked the decision to release it the same day as An Bord Snip Nua.
“It is however ironic to note that the abuses highlighted in the report happened at a time of plenty and not cutbacks,” he said.
Health Minister Mary Harney denied it had been planned that two major reports were published within hours of each other.
She also maintained her thoughts were with the families affected by the events at the home.
“I genuinely hope that this report will help all the families come to terms with what happened and to take some consolation in the fact that we will use this report to ensure that no other patient or their family face problems like this again,” she said.
Ms Harney said the National Quality Standards for residential settings which came into effect in July allowed a new, independent inspection regime to begin for all nursing homes for the first time.
“I can’t guarantee this won’t happen again, but I can guarantee that it would be picked up quickly,” she added.
