Probe into nursing home with 'dirtiest' Covid-19 patients, to be published in November 

People who had had a positive Covid result at one nursing home were classed in the memo, which national director of community operations David Walsh would later condemn as “unacceptable”, as the “dirtiest patients”.

An investigation into a controversial HSE-run nursing home that was hit by one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks is to be published in November.

The probe was launched after allegations were made in April 2020 by a whistleblower about the way St Mary’s Hospital in Co Dublin handled the first wave.

Around the time the whistleblower reported their allegations in the form of a protected disclosure under whistleblowing legislation, it emerged that residents in the Phoenix Park home with Covid-19 were categorised as the “dirtiest patients”.

The categorisation, which led to a national outcry, was in a memo to staff on how to contain the outbreak that claimed the lives of 24 residents.

While the memo referred to asymptomatic patients as “cleanest”, it referred to those who were suspected of having the virus as “dirty”.

People who had had a positive Covid result were classed in the memo, which national director of community operations David Walsh would later condemn as “unacceptable”, as the “dirtiest patients”.

In a letter to the whistleblower’s solicitor Caoimhe Haughey last week, the firm handling the investigation said the investigation team has been progressing with the investigation “as expeditiously as possible”.

“You will be aware of the detail and significance of the concerns raised across some 11 themes which, by their nature, require a careful and sensitive review before we can draw conclusions,” they said.

Acrux Consulting says the team has met 28 witnesses and representatives from four families who approached the investigation team through Ms Haughey’s office.

“We are nearing completion of that process”, they said, adding that during the investigation, the team has been “challenged with dealing with unexpected events”.

They said this included the recent HSE cyberattack.

The families of those who died were among the first to call for a national inquiry into the way nursing homes coped in the pandemic.

And it was in May 2020, shortly after complaints were made about the home and protected disclosure lodged, that the Government announced the first of a series of probes into how nursing homes were coping with the pandemic.