Madam, - I wish to take issue with your seriously misinformed Editorial last Tuesday regarding Prof Des O'Neill's report into Leas Cross nursing home.
The Editorial claimed that the HSE had "withheld a grave and disturbing report into Leas Cross". This is misleading. The HSE is more anxious than anyone to publish this report but is unable to publish it in its current form following strong legal advice.
The HSE is currently discussing with Prof O'Neill how we may progress beyond the current situation given this legal advice and we are very grateful for his work so far.
As a newspaper, The Irish Times is more than aware of the legal complexities that may surround the publication of sensitive material and I am sure that at times you are also constrained by legal advice. For this reason, the intolerant tone of your Editorial was particularly hard to understand.
Much more unforgivable was the claim that "15 months after it undertook to publish the results of all such [ nursing home] inspections as a matter of course, nothing has happened". This is simply untrue. Two weeks ago, the HSE began publication of these inspection reports on the HSE website (www.hse.ie) two weeks ago, as reported at the time in other media.
Your Editorial's implication that nothing could happen until the Leas Cross report was published was equally difficult to understand. The HSE has not waited for publication of the report. Since the airing of the original RTÉ Prime Time programme on Leas Cross, it has undertaken and implemented a significant number of initiatives.
These culminated, in July, with the introduction of the new National Private Nursing Homes Inspection Process. Teams are now carrying out inspections across the country using this consistent framework and, as stated above, these are now available to view on our website.The HSE has also recently launched a national recruitment campaign for Elder Abuse Officers to assist us in our priority of addressing the welfare of vulnerable older people.
All of the recommendations in Prof O'Neill's report which relate to the HSE are being addressed and, in some instances, already implemented.
Your readers can be assured that the HSE will not tolerate nursing homes operating below acceptable standards. Where issues are identified for follow up action, they will be actively pursued.
I trust that this clarifies the true position. We do not always expect understanding from the paper of record but we do expect the record. - Yours, etc,
AIDAN BROWNE, National Director, Primary Community and Continuing Care Directorate, Health Service Executive, Parkgate Street, Dublin 8.