Coroners call for statutory inquiry into Covid-19 nursing home deaths

Frank O’Connell, president of the Coroners Society of Ireland, believes such an inquiry is necessary to provide answers for grieving relatives about why their loved ones died.

The Coroners Society of Ireland has called for a “wide-ranging inquiry” into all Covid-19 related nursing home deaths.

Its president, Frank O’Connell, believes such an inquiry is necessary to provide answers for grieving relatives about why their loved ones died.

He does not believe individual inquests will be adequate.

Mr O'Connell, who is coroner for South and West Cork, is currently exploring holding individual inquests into six deaths at Ballynoe Nursing Home in Co Cork.

Other coroners around the country are also looking at opening inquests into Covid-19 deaths, with two already opened in Mayo.

Mr O’Connell told the Irish Examiner: “There is a basis for a more wide-ranging inquiry into all Covid-related deaths in nursing homes to deal with such questions as design, ventilation, isolation, staffing etc.

“Such an inquiry is much more likely to address the concerns of families, which have been raised with me.

The questions families have relate to management, competence, and why their loved ones contracted Covid-19 and what could have been done to prevent that from happening.

Mayo coroner Patrick O’Connor, who is the society’s public information officer, said he shares those views.

“I don’t think coroners are, at present, geared towards being able to hold the type of inquiry that would look into issues that are likely to arise.

“They simply don’t have the resources.

“If there is to be an inquiry, it should be some form of statutory inquiry that would be nationwide and embrace all of the various issues.”

Meanwhile, the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) annual report has identified the need for an urgent review of its powers.

The health watchdog says the pandemic has exposed gaps in how our most vulnerable people are protected.

Hiqa received 1,838 concerns about services last year from the public. 

The report says 82% of nursing homes reported at least one case of Covid-19, with the virus remaining “a real and present danger” to the sector.

Chief inspector of social services, Mary Dunnion, said she had received communications from many "bereaved, concerned, and sometimes frightened relatives of patients" who could not visit or speak to their family members and were unclear about what was happening to them.

The Hiqa report and the position of the coroners will likely add more pressure on the Government to commit to a national inquiry.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelley said he was anxious that any review would not get "bogged down" in a legal wrangle. 

"When it comes to the deaths in nursing homes, there are certain situations where families are seeking answers. 

"In some cases, local engagement with the nursing homes is working well. But that is not the case for all families, some of whom I have met and heard their very understandable demand for more information and explanations. 

Families have a right to the truth, they have a right to know what happened. And they need an approach that doesn’t get bogged down for years in legal wrangles, which has happened too often in the past. 

"The department is currently reviewing the situation."

Arlene Walsh, whose 81-year-old uncle Jimmy Lee died in Cork’s Ballynoe Nursing Home on February 3, said: “It is great to hear Mr O’Connell calling for a national inquiry because that is what is needed.

“But on behalf of 11 families of those who died at Ballynoe, we are also heartened that he is trying to see if he can hold individual inquests.

“At the end of the day, we all want to find out why our loved ones died, and at the moment, coroners seem to be the only ones who have shown any interest in doing this not just for us, but for families like us around the country.”