High Court judge asks for second medical visitor to assess elderly woman removed from 'squalid' home

A further assessment has been ordered of the decision making capacity of an elderly woman who was taken to hospital under High Court orders last month due to concerns about "extreme self-neglect" in a "squalid" home.

The woman has several physical health issues and a history of misusing prescribed drugs, and regularly makes numerous calls to ambulance and doctor services, sometimes 10 a night, in which she often just seeks reassurance but sometimes wants visits and painkillers, the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Peter Kelly observed.