Elderly patients moved without consent, says Labour

FREEING-UP Dublin hospital bed spaces has forced nearly 600 elderly patients into long-term care outside the capital.

Health chiefs have admitted moving the patients out of acute care beds into nursing homes and similar facilities, dozens of miles away from hospitals.

The move helps reduce Accident and Emergency bed waiting times. However, some patients were moved without their consent and despite objections by relatives, Labour claimed last night.

In total, 1,499 patients had been moved to step down facilities since August 2005. Of these, 598 patients had been moved outside Dublin, the Health Service Executive (HSE) admitted to TD Mary Upton in a parliamentary question.

“The patients have been relocated in some cases many miles from where they live and what’s most upsetting is that, in many instances, neither the patients nor their families have even given their consent for this move,” contended the Dublin South Central TD.

The HSE reply said the initiative was in response to “alleviating pressure on acute hospitals”.

Over 80% of patients taken out of acute hospitals and moved into nursing homes and elsewhere, were over 65 years of age.

The cases of elderly patients being moved away from loved ones was highlighted earlier this year. Mary O’Brien, 65, from Ballyfermot, Dublin, expressed concern about the placement of her son, Vincent, in a Kildare nursing home.

Vincent was attacked and left severely brain-damaged. The 41-year-old was moved out of Dublin without consent, relatives said.

Before he was moved, his elderly mother took the bus visiting him in St James’s Hospital every day unless her heart condition required her to rest. She was only able to travel the 26 miles to visit him in Kildare three times, before he died in February.

The HSE were unable to say how many of the near 1,500 patients were moved to homes without their consent.

The HSE reply added: “If options to return home are exhausted and long-term care is required residential care is agreed between the client/family.

“If a client is incapable of expressing consent the hospital teams adhere to legal requirements under the various Acts.”