By Dermot Keys
dermot@letterkennypost.com
A Falcarragh nursing home that was previously found to have abused patients in its care is once again under investigation following the death of an 85-year-old woman at the hospital earlier this month.
A spokeperson for the HSE confirmed that there was a death at Falcarragh Community Hospital on August 15, and said the hospital will be co-operating fully with an ongoing Garda investigation. The hospital launched an immediate review into the circumstances of the death. The woman has been named as Sheila Coyle.
Falcarragh Community Hospital came under scrutiny two years ago following an investigation into the abuse of a male in-patient. Staff were found to have covered the patients hands with socks, and tied them together with bandages at night time. The two nurses responsible said they took these actions to prevent him from removing his incontinence wear.
Following complaints from the family, those responsible were subsequently disciplined.
The death at the Donegal hospital comes at a time when questions are being raised about the treatment of patients in nursing homes. Documents obtained by Fine Gael TD , Fergus O’Dowd, show that large number of complaints have been upheld against nursing homes in the country over the last three years.
The Freedom of Information documents revealed another instance of neglect in Hillcrest Nursing Home in Letterkenny. Following a fall in August 2007, an elderly woman’s family made repeated requests to have her x-rayed. The home told the family at the time that she had been sent for an x-ray but there were no nursing, medical or diary entries to support this.
Despite repeated complaints of pain by the patient, she was only given additional pain relief on two occasions.
When she was finally admitted to the hospital almost two months after her accident, she was found to have a chest infection and an x-ray showed a healing fracture of her upper arm.
The subsequent investigation found that Hillcrest didn’t respond to the patient’s complaints of pain and highlighted the owner’s reluctance to call a doctor.