PRIVATE nursing home owners have warned the Government they won’t be able to comply with new quality standards unless they receive funding from the Department of Health.

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

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

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.

THE Government is ultimately responsible for the appalling conditions at Leas Cross nursing home.

A €30 MILLION patients watchdog has been jointly proposed by Fine Gael and Labour.

ANGERED and tearful relatives of former Leas Cross residents yesterday hit out at senior health authorities during the release of the report on the nursing home.

AN ailing patient at Leas Cross waited three days to see a doctor because a staff member claimed difficulty in contacting one, a damning report on the disgraced nursing home reveals.

Relatives of elderly patients who died in Leas Cross nursing home today hit out at their treatment by authorities who investigated abuse at the facility.

CONTROVERSIAL nursing home Leas Cross ran up losses of nearly €1 million last year.

THE long-awaited Leas Cross nursing home report details how the home was deficient at many levels, including having “inadequate numbers of inadequately trained staff”.

An independent watchdog should be set up to protect nursing home patients against abuses, the Dáil heard today.

Health authorities knew about care abuse of elderly residents at Leas Cross nursing home almost a year before a Prime Time documentary exposed it on RTE, Fine Gael claimed today.

A report into the death of a 61-year-old man at Leas Cross nursing home in north Co Dublin is due to be published today.

A report into the death of Downs Syndrome man at the controversial Leas Cross nursing home is due to be given to his family today.

An independent review of all deaths at the Leas Cross nursing home since 2002 has been initiated.

MORE than 70 nurse managers are to develop standards of nursing care based on best international practice in a bid to improve private nursing home care.

A patients’ group tonight called for the publication of a report into the death of a 60-year-old disabled man at a former Dublin nursing home.

The last patients are being moved from Leas Cross nursing home in North Dublin this weekend.

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) has now identified homes for all of elderly residents of Leas Cross nursing home.

A PSYCHOLOGIST claims he became the victim of a campaign of bullying and intimidation by his employers after he raised concerns about the transfer of a patient to the controversial Leas Cross nursing home in Dublin.

The Health Service Executive has reportedly ordered an independent investigation into a number of deaths at Leas Cross nursing home in north Co Dublin.

The Health Services Executive is to investigate all deaths of patients at the controversial Leas Cross Nursing home in Dublin, it emerged today.

ALMOST a quarter of private nursing homes in the same area as the controversial Leas Cross nursing home are not up to standard.

Inspectors from the Health Service Executive have reportedly some nursing homes in the east of the country unsuitable to house patients.

THE owner of Leas Cross nursing home yesterday made a desperate bid to retain residents, offering its services free for six months.

THE health authorities had a highly critical report on the Leas Cross nursing home in Dublin almost a full year before a television programme exposed substandard conditions there, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has confirmed.

The Health Service Executive is making alternative arrangements to move some of its public patients placed in the Leas Cross Nursing home in north county Dublin.

WHEN Peter McKenna died, he was alone, in terrible pain, and frightened. He didn’t know what was happening to him because he couldn’t.

By Pat Brosnan

Evelyn Ring

Dan Buckley on how long-term neglect has eroded care for our vulnerable senior citizens.

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has rejected criticism of the nursing homes inspection regime in the wake of this week's Prime Time documentary.

Fine Gael TD Liam Twomey has slammed the Government's failure to improve standards in nursing homes over recent years.

The Health Service Executive has taken over the running of the Leas Cross nursing home in north Co Dublin following revelations about the poor standard of care at the facility.

MINISTER for Older People Seán Power admitted yesterday that the inspections of nursing homes are “ridiculous” — especially the advance warning given to private nursing homes.

The virulent political outrage generated by the Prime Time revelations serves to create the illusion that it was the first time politicians on either side of the Dáil were made aware of the horrific conditions in some of the nursing homes in this country.

A 73-year-old woman died from massive bed sores which left gaping holes down to the bones after spending nine weeks in Leas Cross nursing home, an inquest heard last March.

PETER McKENNA died of septicaemia just 12 days after being admitted to Leas Cross nursing home in Swords, Co Dublin.

Junior Minister Sean Power has insisted that the Government is committed to establishing an independent body to inspect standards in Irish nursing homes.

The Federation of Irish Nursing Homes has insisted that the abuses highlighted in a television documentary last night are not widespread.

The Irish Patients' Association has demanded government action in the wake of a television documentary highlighting appalling conditions at a nursing home in north Co Dublin.

Scenes of bullying by staff, appalling hygiene and general lack of medical care in a nursing home for the elderly were broadcast on national TV last night after the High Court refused to halt the programme.