Abused, abandoned and exploited

THE Health Services Executive (HSE) is investigating up to 100 complaints made about private nursing homes in the past year.

Up to 20 nursing homes were mentioned by callers who contacted a helpline on Monday night after a Prime Time exposé of abuse at a Dublin nursing home.

The gardaí were yesterday called in to investigate allegations of abuse at the Leas Cross nursing home in Swords in Co Dublin.

Action on Elderly Abuse vowed to pass on allegations of criminal wrongdoing it received to its helpline relating to other Irish nursing homes, as long as the callers gave their consent.

"Some were reporting abuse and saying they had relatives in this or that home, while others said their relatives had died at a home and they had been worried about it. We are still looking at all the information from over 100 calls and will be over the coming days," Action on Elderly Abuse chief executive Gary Fitzgerald said.

The Prime Time programme showed elderly patients being verbally abused and bullied into taking their medication.

Some were force fed. The exposé also showed a woman being strapped into a restraining chair, where she was held for long periods, and staff sleeping through their shifts. Residents are charged €45,000 per annum.

The Irish Nursing Homes Organisation (INHO) said nursing home care standards were inadequate, too vague and open to interpretation.

INHO chairman Paul Costello accused the Government of blocking efforts to introduce an independent regulator for nursing homes. He said the Minister of State with responsibility for the elderly, Sean Power, had failed to respond to INHO requests for action last February.

"He (Mr Power) really needs to do something about it now because I met him in February to alert him we were not getting cooperation from the HSE. He promised to get back to me. He hasn't and it's just not good enough."

Mr Power yesterday said the Government would bring in an independent inspectorate for nursing homes the proposal is contained in the Health Information Quality Authority Bill and should be made law by the autumn.

However, Age Action Ireland revealed they have lobbied the Government for the past two years to bring in an independent inspectorate, but received no official response.

"This programme prised open the nasty and murky side of Irish nursing home care we have received a lot of similar complaints," spokesman Paul Murray said.

Mr Power admitted the current inspections of nursing homes are "ridiculous" especially the procedure whereby advance warning of inspections is given to private nursing homes.

One in five of Ireland's private nursing homes was inspected only once last year, even though by law they should be inspected at least twice a year.

Of more than 435 private homes, 82 were inspected just once by the HSE.

Overall, 33 received adverse reports. Two were the subject of legal action, with action pending against two more.

The State's 500 public nursing homes are not required to be inspected.

The HSE appointed a new director of nursing to Leas Cross last night and a board of governors to oversee the care of the patients.

Following the meeting with the HSE, the owner of the nursing home, John Aherne, said steps would be taken to address the issue raised by the report.

He said nursing home management would meet with residents, relatives and staff.