ALMOST two years before concerns over the standard of care at Leas Cross became public knowledge in 2005, the family of Katherine Mullins contacted the then Northern Area Health Board over the treatment of their mother at the home.
The 80-year-old, originally from Carrick-on-Suir in south Tipperary, had a "very aggressive" form of Alzheimer’s and had complained she was not receiving her medication.
Staff at Leas Cross insisted this was not the case.
However, a formal investigation by the health board’s director of nursing, Jack Buckley, found the facility was in "clear breach" of patient safety, had inadequate levels of staffing and that there was "no clear policy for the care and supervision of patients with dementia".
Ultimately, they found that there was no evidence the vulnerable Alzheimer’s patient was receiving her vital medication.
Her son and spokesperson for the Leas Cross Deaths Relatives Action Group, Tony Mullins, said the issues highlighted by the pre-scandal report highlight the reality of how vulnerable elderly people were treated.
"My mother didn’t die at Leas Cross, but she went in with Alzheimer’s in summer 2003 and we took her out before Christmas," explained Tony.
"I used to take her out or visit her nearly every day and she would say she wasn’t getting her medicine. They said she just didn’t remember because she has Alzheimer’s but it later transpired that there was no medication plan in Leas Cross.
"Imagine that, an old lady with severe Alzheimer’s in a nursing home that doesn’t give her the medication."
There were other problems at the home, Mr Mullins continued.
"One day one of my sisters found her sitting outside in the morning. She was soaked. We have no idea how long she was out there, but it could have been all night.
"We contacted the health board at the time and they investigated and found our concerns were accurate. These people were supposed to be looking after high dependency cases, but they weren’t," he said.
After confirming how their mother was treated, Katherine Mullins’s relatives removed her from Leas Cross just before Christmas 2003.
However, due to the high dependency caused by her Alzheimer’s condition, the family were unable to care for her safely at home in Dublin, and decided to transfer her to another home in early 2004 "which she found very satisfactory".
Ms Mullins died in the spring of that year, a year after complaints were first raised over her care and a full 12 months before a Prime Time exposé into standards at the facility.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Friday, July 17, 2009
