HSE refuses to say if it will publish report on chair restraint death

THE HSE has further refused to say if, or when, it will publish the findings of a report into the death of a 75-year-old woman at a hospital in north Cork.

The HSE received the findings of an independent report in June into the death of Hannah Comber at Heatherside Hospital, near Buttevant. She had been a patient at the hospital, a long-stay mental health facility for older people.

It emerged she was choked to death by a belt used to restrain her in a chair. The belt was bound round her waist, but it is thought she fell asleep and slipped down, causing the buckle to compress her neck. Staff had put the restraining belt on her because she had become restless after getting out of bed.