The first time Therese Lipsett says she found out the health board wanted to close down her nursing home was when she heard the three o'clock news on Tuesday.
"One of the residents came up to me and said that we were going to be closed down. I said this can't be right . . . It's all been very distressing, especially my family being brought into it and pictured on the front of the papers. My reaction has been shock and horror. I've just had to cope and move on."
The health board's allegations were serious. A team of inspectors found repeated breaches of drug administration, fire safety and staffing levels for the 23 residents, 11 of whom were dependent and required assistance.
In one instance an inspector said bedsores on an elderly incontinent patient were found to have been contaminated by faecal matter.
These substantive allegations have yet to be dealt with in court and yesterday Ms Lipsett declined to comment to reporters and camera crews gathered outside her Rostrevor Nursing Home in Rathgar.
However, in an interview with The Irish Times she contested most of the allegations and vowed to fight to keep her 20-year-old nursing home open. "Not one person wants to move. They have had to make provisional arrangements for leaving in the event of being closed down. There was a lot of anxiety among residents and relatives.
"They are very very happy, they love their environment, they love the intimacy it provided them. If they can't be at home, it's the next best thing.
"It's a very intimate relationship with the residents, we know them all individually, their relations, extended families and GPs individually . . . it's an area where it's about having a heart."
Among the most serious allegations is that discontinued drugs were administered to some patients and there was a failure to keep a record of drugs and medicines administered. Ms Lipsett said there was no question that drugs had been improperly administered and that any problems there were were related to paperwork errors. "I've had a lot of people asking how long out of date were the medicines. They weren't. The issue was that the doctor hadn't continued to prescribe the medicine, which is what they are meant to do every three months. They didn't do a rollover . . . It was all a bit blown up."
She was not aware of the specific details on bedsores found to have been contaminated by faecal matter, but said there was an issue with recruiting qualified staff and training them to the demands of a nursing home.
Ms Lipsett, a qualified nurse, also said she thought it unlikely that there was no nurse on duty during one inspection, as had been reported by a health board inspector.
"That would be very unlikely insofar as I always step in personally if there is a shortage. That's the advantage of being a nurse. I am close by and always step in myself if a nurse is sick or unable to attend to a roster. That's the advantage of a proprietor being a nurse."
She accepted that the doors of the home had been left unlocked despite the fact that residents had wandered, but insisted that this was part of the homely environment at the nursing home. "The environment is very intimate and very homely, giving the patients as much freedom as we can, while giving them as much safety and security as we can."
Ms Lipsett said it was not true that there had been no improvement in standards in response to health board concerns expressed repeatedly over the last three to four years. "My reaction, when there have been recommendations, has been to sit down with my matron and staff nurses, go through them and look at ways and means of resolving them."
