HSE probes 95 deaths at scandal-hit Leas Cross

THE Heath Services Executive is investigating the cases of all 95 patients who died in the Leas Cross nursing home in north Dublin over the past three years.

The HSE yesterday confirmed that the circumstances surrounding the deaths of all patients who died in the nursing home between 2002 and 2006 are being reviewed by Dr Des O’Neill, a professor in geriatric medicine. He is expected to complete his final report in December.

A HSE spokesperson told the Irish Examiner last night that the comprehensive review was being carried out as “a matter of prudence”.

He said the 111-bed nursing home, which closed in August, was a large home with high dependency patients and those with complex medical conditions. He said, in that context, 95 deaths over three years was not an unusually high figure.

Fine Gael TD Fergus O’Dowd, who uncovered the information about the scope of the inquiry, yesterday said Leas Cross represented only “the tip of the iceberg” when it came to sub-standard, and in some cases appalling, conditions in nursing homes.

Mr O’Dowd also released a document detailing communications between the HSE and the management of Leas Cross, in the weeks following the RTÉ Prime Time Investigation that exposed conditions at the nursing home.

According to the document on June 8, after the HSE had taken over management of the nursing home, it told its owner, John Ahern, that “in excess of 20 additional nurses (including senior and middle nurse management) would be required to provide an appropriate standard of care”.

Mr O’Dowd said: “It is a reasonable question to ask if the level of care provided in Leas Cross over the past number of years has contributed to the cause of death of any of the 95 patients now under review.”

Mr O’Dowd, who has campaigned on this issue for the past five years, also called for an inspectorate of nursing homes to be established independent of the HSE. He said, in 2000 and 2001, health board inspectors had made adverse findings against some 33 nursing homes out of the estimated 432 homes in the country.

While some of those findings were technical, there were at least ten or 11 homes still operating in Ireland where the conditions were appalling.

Prof O’Neill’s terms of reference include the review of medical, nursing and prescribing notes; hospital records; post-mortem summaries; death certificates; inquests; and nursing home inspection reports.

Meanwhile, the Irish Medical Organisation has called for an immediate increase in hospital beds for the elderly and an accelerated building programme of public nursing home beds.

In its pre-Budget submission, it says the provision of beds for the elderly has declined sharply and is a major cause of the A&E crisis.