HSE asks union to withdraw patient death claims

Senior HSE management have asked a psychiatric union representative to formally retract claims made about patients moved to nursing homes against their wishes and who later died.

Kerry Psychiatric Nurses Association representative Cormac Williams has been outspoken about how the closure of St Finan’s hospital, open since the 1800s, is taking place. He claimed in the Irish Examiner that patients transferred to private nursing homes died within a short time span of the move.

The HSE has asked Mr Williams to “substantiate” or withdraw his claims.