SOME private nursing homes are failing to meet basic standards for elderly people under their care.

Relatives have expressed disappointment with yesterday's report into the treatment of patients at Leas Cross nursing home in Dublin.

RELATIVES of elderly people who died in the care of Leas Cross Nursing Home are angry that no one in the Health Service Executive said sorry for the needless suffering of their loved ones.

STANDARDS of care fell below acceptable levels at Leas Cross Nursing Home for nearly two years before it closed in 2005, the final report of the Government-appointed inquiry has concluded.

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.

ONE of Tony Blair’s staff — Jo Moore — earned a degree of infamy for herself and her profession on 9/11. As the World Trade Centre collapsed killing thousands, she described it as “a good day to bury bad news”.

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.

The report into the operation of Leas Cross Nursing Home has found that the principal cause for the decline in care was a lack of staff, considering the number of residents at the North county Dublin facility.

Fine Gael has criticised the Government's decision to publish a report into the Leas Cross nursing home scandal today.

The official report into the treatment of elderly patients at the Leas Cross nursing home in north Co Dublin is due to be published later today.

THE final report into the Leas Cross nursing home scandal has been delayed for the third time in less than a year due to the “complexity and volume” of the cases involved.

LAST week we had a glimpse of what is possible when powerful interests move to control the public agenda.

CONCERN has been voiced about ongoing conditions in nursing homes after details emerged about the large number of complaints being made and upheld against nursing homes across the Republic.

THAT hackneyed, black-humour warning seen on car stickers — “Be nice to your children, after all they will choose your nursing home” — has taken on a macabre relevance.

AN investigation into the running of Leas Cross is unlikely to meet its completion date, because it received more evidence than it had anticipated and is trawling through more than 34,000 documents about former residents.

Today is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day and there is a conference at University College Dublin to mark the occasion. In January, the Irish Examiner disclosed that the existing 26 elder abuse officers reported 927 cases of elder abuse in the second half of 2007.

A WRECKING ball is set to banish the physical legacy of a nursing home that closed after an undercover TV programme exposed maltreatment of its elderly residents.

THE family of a former Leas Cross patient have rejected the terms of reference of an inquiry into his death.

The lessons of Leas Cross have still not been learnt by nursing homes, says Juno McEnroe

IF any sector of Irish life is in need of a public watchdog, it is the country’s much criticised health service. The spate of scandals and controversies that dogged the service in recent times underlines the need for such a body.

THE former manager of an employment centre at one of the State’s largest disability agencies has told an Employment Appeals Tribunal that she was subjected to an 18-month long campaign of bullying.

THE nursing home where a woman died, and whose body was in what was described by an undertaker as a “shocking state”, refused to answer queries yesterday.

THE controversial Leas Cross nursing home has reopened after agreeing changed standards and refurbishments with health inspectors.

RELATIVES of former patients at the controversial Leas Cross nursing home last night welcomed news of a Commission of Investigation focusing on the facility.

ONE of the country’s largest providers of services to people with learning disabilities is facing a second bullying controversy in just 12 months.

THE Irish Nursing Homes Organisation fully supports the expansion and enhancement of the current inspection regime concerning nursing homes. However, the current HSE inspection system is totally unfair and deprives nursing home proprietors of any degree of natural justice whatsoever.

A RETIRED health board official was yesterday granted leave by the High Court to bring a legal challenge to aspects of the HSE report into Leas Cross nursing home.

LEAS CROSS nursing home is set to reopen under new owners who are already under fire for damning conditions in other facilities they own.

Leas Cross nursing home in north Co Dublin received almost €5m in taxpayer's money before its closure last year.

RELATIVES of former residents of the notorious Leas Cross nursing home will meet Health Minister Mary Harney for the first time today.

OPPOSITION parties and groups representing older people have said the Government does not have enough community care in place for the 95% of older people who will not be eligible for the proposed nursing home scheme.

CONTROVERSIAL nursing home Leas Cross was bankrolled to the tune of nearly €5 million by the Department of Health, figures obtained by the Irish Examiner reveal.

A LEAS Cross-style inquiry into the substandard care exposed at a second private nursing home is still a possibility, the minister with responsibility for older people said.

The man who wrote the damning report into Leas Cross nursing home says building smaller facilities may be the best way to ensure the highest standard of care.

The man who wrote the damning report into Leas Cross nursing home in north Dublin is due before the Oireachtas Health Committee this morning to answer questions about his findings.

THE Health Service Executive is to train health and community professionals on how to detect the abuse of up to 20,000 elderly people who come into their care every year.

PROFESSIONAL carers have said a licensing system should be extended nationwide to protect the elderly people they are looking after.

NURSING home owners are “cutting corners” to boost profits and are facing little, if no, sanctions, the country’s health chief for elderly care claimed yesterday.

The Health Service Executive’s critical report into the Leas Cross nursing home has been handed over to the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Relatives of former Leas Cross patients are to make a formal complaint about the Health Service Executive to the Minister for Health Mary Harney today.

HEALTH chiefs were aware of deficiencies at Leas Cross nursing home for eight years which culminated in “something very evil” happening, relatives of former residents at the nursing home claimed yesterday.

LEAH GRANT said the day she removed her father, Richard Walsh, from Leas Cross nursing home would haunt her until she died.

Families of patients who died at Leas Cross nursing home were lied to by the Health Service Executive about problems at the facility, a new victims’ group claimed today.

TWO nursing homes owned by the same company are facing separate court actions this month over alleged breaches of care and welfare regulations.