The owner of the controversial Leas Cross nursing home in north Dublin has said claims that it was responsible for a 60-year-old disabled man missing a crucial hospital appointment just days before his death are inaccurate.
John Aherne claims the reason Peter McKenna did not attend Beaumont Hospital on October 16th, 2000, for the appointment was because there was no bed available for him at the hospital.
He said yesterday that Mr McKenna, whose family are awaiting the publication of a report into his death, was admitted to Leas Cross on October 10th, 2000, on foot of a High Court order. He had been transferred there from St Michael's House, a disability service provider, a day after having had a catheter inserted at Beaumont Hospital.
Mr McKenna, who had Down syndrome and Alzheimer's disease, had an appointment at Beaumont on October 12th, 2000, and Mr Aherne said he attended the hospital that day. He was given what Mr Aherne calls "a provisional appointment" to return on October 16th, 2000. On that date he was to undergo "a procedure" and would have to stay in a day-bed for a number of hours afterwards so he could be kept under observation.
Leas Cross was to check on the morning of October 16th with the hospital to make sure a bed was available before taking him there. When it did, there was no bed available, he said. Leas Cross was told the hospital would confirm another appointment as soon as a bed became available, he said.However, before this happened Mr McKenna became ill and was taken to Beaumont on October 22nd. He died within hours, of blood poisoning, and his medical notes on admission referred to his poor hygienic state.
An investigation into his death was carried out by the former head of the blood bank, Martin Hynes, but it has not yet been published. Mr McKenna's family met Minister for Health Mary Harney seeking a date for publication of the report earlier this week. They were assured that, barring any legal hitches, they would receive a copy before the end of October.
Leas Cross, which closed after the Health Service Executive (HSE) withdrew patients from it following a Prime Time Investigates programme on practices at the home earlier this year, says it still has not received a full copy of the Hynes report, and therefore was unable to respond to it when invited to do so by the HSE last June.
Mr Aherne said he was only given a copy of the parts of the report which related to Leas Cross. Letters to him from the HSE indicate it could not give him the full report because St Michael's House refused to allow the HSE to release any part of the report relating to St Michael's House "to a third party".
Asked if it concurred with Mr Aherne's version of events, a spokesman for Beaumont said it would be inappropriate to comment on a report that had not yet been published.