Widow dismisses claims man was mistreated

CLAIMS that an elderly patient had been mistreated at a HSE psychiatric home in Ennis were yesterday dismissed by his widow.

Mrs Anne Finn said her late husband, Gerard Finn who died recently from Alzheimer’s got excellent treatment at Cappahard Lodge residence for psychiatric patients.

Mrs Finn, speaking on Joe Duffy’s Liveline radio show also complained that RTÉ news never contacted her earlier this week about a news item in which her stepdaughter, Mrs Lourda Flanagan, made allegations about Cappahard.

Mrs Finn, who lives in Kilrush, said her husband had to be transferred to a general hospital on a number of occasions as he was prone to chest infections due to his Alzheimer’s. He also had breathing difficulties and became dehydrated and would not take food.

Mrs Finn, praising the nursing care at Cappahard, expressed the hope that a HSE investigation into Mrs Flanagan’s claims would clear up the matter.

A top Scottish health care executive, Donald Lyons has been asked to head up this investigation by the HSE.

She said: “I know in my heart that Cappahard has nothing to worry about that way. But it is what the nurses have been through as well. It is hard enough to do the job they are doing without having all this hassle and all these things said about them. I just want people to know I have no complaints.”

She visited her late husband four times a week spending many hours on each visit with him.

During these visits she was able to see the care given to patients by the nursing staff.

“We knew he would get the care he needed over there,” she said.

A previous HSE investigation found complaints by members of the Finn family alleging abusive behaviour towards Mr Finn to be unfounded.

Mrs Finn said she had also told the HSE she was happy the way her husband was treated at Cappahard.

“They’re so kind over there,” she said.

Mrs Finn said during the last six months of his life, the Alzheimer’s took over his entire body and led to a huge loss of weight.

Lourda Flanagan told Liveline her stepmother was entitled to her opinion.

She said she had photographic evidence of bruising on his body.

After a consultant told her when her father was in the general hospital, there were issues that needed to be addressed, she did not want him to go back to Cappahard.

She said she wanted to know why her father had be brought so often to the hospital.

She claimed she and other family members offered to pay for him to be cared for in another home.

Mrs Finn said bruising resulted from his condition and from falls.

Des Kavanagh of the Psychiatric nurses association said they were perfectly happy to have any allegations investigated.

He said it would have been far better if Mrs Flanagan had waited for the outcome of the HSE investigation before going public with her allegations earlier this week.