Taoiseach backs HSE complaints procedure

A confidential recipient has been appointed and the Health Service Executive has put whistleblowing procedures in place, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said, as a call was made for a public inquiry into all care facilities for people with intellectual disabilities.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said in the Dáil it was "time to have a fully independent root-and-branch inquiry into all care facilities for citizens with disabilities, particularly intellectual disabilities, in the State".

He made his comments as he expressed concern about outsourcing care to the private sector. “The care of our most vulnerable citizens is not compatible with the profit motive,” he said.

Mr Adams also highlighted the treatment of residents of Redwood care facility in Co Meath. He said Eamonn Kennedy was admitted to the facility in 2010 and, after several falls, was twice hospitalised, once with a head injury and lacerations and the second time with more lacerations and bruising.

In 2012 an emergency medicine consultant “noted that several aspects of the bruising were suspicious of non-accidental injury and that there appeared to be no medical explanation for the bruising”.

Anti

psychotic medication A second resident, within two days of moving to Redwood, was put on anti

psychotic medication and taken off a gluten- and dairy-free diet, against his family’s wishes. He suffered nine convulsions and was admitted to hospital. Mr Adams highlighted the report of the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa), which stated there was a “significant denial of the civil, legal and human rights of citizens at Redwood”.

Mr Kenny said the fragile, elderly and vulnerable “deserve to have nothing but the best level of care and consideration given to them, irrespective of where they are”.

The HSE was taking a series of actions and had put whistleblowing procedures in place. "A confidential recipient in respect of complaints in this matter, Leigh Gath, has been appointed."

He said there were “regulatory process issues at Redwood” and the HSE was in discussion with Hiqa.