Authorities were not alerted until all six victims had died

The HSE was not alerted to a spate of deaths at a private nursing home in Donegal until all six patients had died.

The first the HSE was told of a serious situation at Nazareth House in Fahan was when the on-call public health doctor alerted health bosses on Sunday night.

By that stage, six elderly patients aged between 85 and 98 years had died — five of them in the previous five days.

HSE officials sent swabs to the National Viral Reference Laboratory in Dublin in a frantic effort to discover the cause of the deaths.

The HSE said tests confirmed influenza was the cause of the respiratory type illness amongst the residents in the private nursing home.

As of yesterday, 27 of the 39 patients at the nursing home were being treated for signs of respiratory illness or being given preventative care. However, only 11 were showing signs of being ill.

Dr Peter Wright, director of public care with HSE North West, said patients were responding well to treatment. “There are eleven residents ill today so there has been a clinical improvement.

“They are all being treated with antibiotics and anti-viral drugs and we would be hoping they would approve.

“Respiratory illness is very common, but in terms of influenza there are not particularly high rates being reported at the moment.

He said all measures were being taken to prevent a further outbreak.

But he said the condition was not a danger to the public and only posed a threat to “risk groups” such as the elderly.

The unit has been closed to new admissions. Staff have been offered a vaccine.

Local Buncrana Town Councillor Peter McLaughlin said red flags should have been raised earlier with the HSE when six people died in such a short space of time. “My first concern is for the remaining patients,” he said.

“But when the dust settles I would be asking for a full report into what happened at Nazareth House in the days leading up to and during these deaths.

“Six deaths in any hospital, including larger facilities such as Letterkenny General Hospital or Altnagelvin, in Derry would raise serious concerns.

“But the fact that it took six deaths, five in as many days, to alert the health service is a serious concern,” he said.

“Nazareth House has always enjoyed a very good reputation as have the staff there,” Cllr McLaughlin added.