Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 338: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the reason the Leas Cross nursing home in Swords, County Dublin, was closed; if reports on this matter are due to be published shortly; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24922/05]

Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to inform the Deputy that my Department requested a report on this matter from the Health Service Executive. The Health Service Executive has informed the Department that the nursing home inspectorate in the HSE northern area, HSENA, had concerns with regard to the number of high dependent residents in Leas Cross, unsatisfactory level of staffing-skill mix, lack of care planning and level of complaints. It was in contact with the management at Leas Cross in late 2004 and early 2005 to satisfactorily deal with those matters.

As the Deputy is aware, the RTE "Prime Time" programme on Leas Cross on 30 May 2005 highlighted highly unsatisfactory care issues in the nursing home. The HSE has advised that prior to the programme being presented and immediately afterwards, senior management, HSENA, had a series of meetings with the management of Leas Cross that culminated in the HSENA assigning a director of nursing and senior nurse management to Leas Cross from 1 June to ensure patient safety and improve the level of care, and following the recruitment of the necessary level of suitable skilled staff, as advised to management, to provide training and support to them.

By 8 June, the director of nursing and her staff were very concerned with the exceptionally low level of care throughout the home being delivered, in the main, by unskilled staff and a small number of nursing staff. The matters of particular concern relating to how they impacted on patient care and safety were staffing skill mix, namely, unqualified staff, infection control, record keeping and fire safety. The HSE has informed the Department that management of Leas Cross had been advised by the HSE of the additional numbers of appropriately skilled staff required to meet the care needs of the residents at Leas Cross. Management advised that it was not in a position to source and recruit these staff. Management of Leas Cross were formally advised on 15 June that the HSE must fulfil its duty of care and obligations immediately to the residents of Leas Cross and in this context alternative arrangements would have to be made for the provision of care to patients placed in Leas Cross Nursing Home by the HSE and patients receiving subvention from the HSE who were residents in Leas Cross Nursing Home.

Following on from this decision, a programme was put in place by the HSE as follows: consultation with the residents in Leas Cross and their families, counselling and support for the residents, their families and staff at Leas Cross, sourcing and quality assuring alternative nursing home places and presenting residents and their families with accessible alternative nursing home options, facilitating visits by families-residents to various homes, as well as facilitating patient assessments, arranging clinical assessments of all patients and managing and supporting the transfer of residents individually to the nursing home of choice.

On 6 July 2005 management of Leas Cross formally advised the HSE of its intention to close its nursing home as and from 1 August. The transfer of residents to their new homes took place on a phased basis with a small number of residents moving daily. The transfers were carried out in this manner so that each resident and his or her family would have the necessary level of support from HSE staff in his or her moving from Leas Cross and in settling in to his or her new home. To this end, a number of experienced administrative staff were assigned to support the director of nursing. The deadline set out by management of Leas Cross was met with the final residents transferring to their new homes on 30 July.

Communication is ongoing between the HSE and the management of Leas Cross concerning the removal of Leas Cross from the register of nursing homes. The HSE has informed the Department that it has appointed a professor of geriatric medicine to independently review the deaths at Leas Cross. This process is ongoing and the review should be available by the end of the year. The HSE has also informed the Department that it has appointed an independent committee to investigate complaints highlighted in the RTE "Prime Time" programme and other matters. The HSE has informed the Department that it is not possible to indicate when this report will be available.