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Leas Cross scandal must never be repeated

Issued : Thursday 16 July, 2009

The publication today of the report into Leas Cross is cynical in the extreme. On a day when the McCarthy Report has also been published, the chances of Leas Cross attracting the media attention it deserves, are small. This is right out of the Jo Moore school of media management, who on September 11 2001 famously advised a UK Government Minister that it was a good day to bury bad news.

Mr Diarmuid O’Donovan should be congratulated for the work that he has done on this report which paints a shameful picture of neglect and ineptitude at various levels.

This document also shines a light on the culture of commodification of older people that has taken place in our health services in recent years,

The end result of this has been a situation where the primary motivation in a small number of privately-run nursing homes has been one of profit, which has meant that when it has come to running these facilities, the quality of services was of secondary consideration.

Earlier this year, under pressure from the Opposition, the Dept of Health introduced a set of standards for residential care settings for the elderly. In fact statutory regulations for nursing homes were long-fingered for years until the RTE expose of the Leas Cross scandal. When Prof Des O'Neill investigated the allegations about Leas Cross, he concluded that regulatory and inspection provision was so weak there could be similar abuses around the country.

It is now of critical importance that the commitment to make the required 48 appointments to the Social Services Inspectorate, is met and that those new inspectors will only be inspecting residential care settings for the elderly and not carrying out other functions under the ambit of the Social Service Inspectorate. Nor should the Inspectorate should not become a victim of An Bord Snip Nua.

I welcome the indication from Minister Harney that she will ask the HSE to ensure that a protocol is now in place in acute hospitals to ensure that concerns about patients from any nursing homes are notified to the Chief Inspector of Social Services at HIQA.

Residents and their relatives must be given clear information o their right to complain, and how to complain if they have concerns about their care.

The response of relatives and residents, many of whom had their lives turned upside down, needs to be listened to and they must have opportunity to feed into the process of following up on today’s report.