A disability service provider today defended the care it offered a 60-year-old man who died after being transferred to the controversial Leas Cross Nursing Home.
St Michael's House, a voluntary facility which caters for people with learning disabilities, said it supported the right of the family of the late Peter McKenna to have their questions surrounding the circumstances of his death answered.
However, St Michael's House has branded an independent report into the transfer of Mr McKenna from the home as flawed.
Mr McKenna, who had Down's syndrome and Alzheimer's disease, died of blood poisoning at Beaumont Hospital 13 days after his admission to the Leas Cross nursing home in Swords, County Dublin.
In a statement, St Michael's House said an investigation into the transfer of Mr McKenna was first commissioned by the Eastern Regional Health Authority in 2001 under Martin Hynes, the former chief executive of the Irish Blood Transfusion Services.
The facility said Mr Hynes' first report, which was published in October 2003, had found the decision to transfer Mr McKenna was appropriate.
However, St Michael's House stated: "A further investigation into the transfer of Mr McKenna was commissioned by the HSE in 2004. Mr Hynes draft second report, in May 2005, is completely at odds with his first report and contains many inaccuracies."
St Michael's House alleged the report's flaws may be due to Mr Hynes choosing not to meet with staff at the facility who were involved in the case.
The facility said it was forced to prepare a comprehensive response to Mr Hynes' draft report, which has yet to be published.
"St Michael's House is deeply concerned that Mr Hynes has failed to take this information on board in finalising his report for the Health Service Executive," the statement said.
Mr McKenna had been transferred in October 2000 as a ward of court from a residential place at St Michael's House. However, St Michael's House said the decision regarding the future care of Mr McKenna was with the High Court due to his ward of court status.
A consultant psychiatrist, who was appointed by the court as an independent advisor, concluded St Michael's House did not have a long-stay facility suitable for Mr McKenna's needs. St Michael's House said the 'medical visitor' visited Leas Cross on several occasions and recommended it as a satisfactory placement.
The statement said: "St Michael's House had been lobbying for several years for resources to provide a specialised Alzheimer's unit for its clients but unfortunately, this unit was not completed until 2002."
The organisation said it genuinely believed it was in Mr McKenna's best interests and safety that he be transferred to Leas Cross, as St Michael's House did not have the nursing facilities to care for him. St Michael's House said Leas Cross in October 2000 had 35 residents and was used extensively by the main hospitals and the Northern Area Health Board.
"During discussions the family advised St Michael's House that they were unhappy with the proposal to transfer Mr McKenna to Leas Cross and St Michael's House offered to fully fund his care in any other nursing home of the family's choosing," the organisation said.
The statement added: "St Michael's House acted at all times with integrity and in a professional and caring manner in relation to Mr McKenna, as it does with all in its care."
Leas Cross, where Mr McKenna was transferred, came under fire after RTE's Prime Time investigative programme revealed footage of what appeared to be an elderly woman restrained in a chair against her will, a care worker harassing a resident and other incidents. The Swords home has since been shut down.