Elderly patients transferred from hospitals to the Leas Cross nursing home in Dublin survived for significantly shorter periods than elsewhere, a still-unpublished investigation has found.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny read extracts from the report by Prof Des O'Neill in the Dáil yesterday, which has still not been published because of libel fears held by the Health Service Executive.
Prof O'Neill said there was "a systematic failure" to provide proper care for the elderly.
Meanwhile, The Irish Times separately learned last night that Prof O'Neill had found major differences between the survival times enjoyed by patients transferred to Leas Cross and those who went to other nursing homes.
A survey of patients moved out from St James's Hospital between 1997 and 2000 showed that the median survival time was 17 months, while it was just 7.3 months if they went to Leas Cross.
The survival rates were even lower for patients transferred to the nursing home from St Ita's Psychiatric Hospital, Portrane, where the median survival time was just 73 days.
Psychiatrists at St Ita's complained sharply about the situation to the Northern Area Health Board and the management of St Ita's, Prof O'Neill found in his report.
Last month, British consultants hired by John Aherne, the owner of the nursing home, criticised the HSE for "dumping" patients who were just about to die into Leas Cross to free up acute hospital beds elsewhere.
In the Dáil, Mr Kenny told TDs: "Some 14 per cent of admissions were recorded as having skin conditions and one can only imagine the wetting, the chafing and the pressure sores.
"There were deficiencies in pressure sore prevention and cure and in the management of swallowing disorders.
"An alarming number of people were nursed in Buxton chairs and there were damning deficiencies in expertise, nurse numbers and nursing infrastructure."
However, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern rejected the criticism, saying that the Government closed the nursing home when the allegations came to light and moved patients "to decent accommodation with acceptable standards".
The Government will shortly publish the Health (Hospitals Inspectorate) Bill 2006 to put the social services inspectorate on a statutory footing and allow it to carry out tougher inspections.
"Standards inspections are now unannounced. A criticism was made in the past that the managers of homes knew when environmental health officers, doctors and nurses were about to visit and would make improvements for that day only, but that will not happen any more," he said.
The Health Service Executive is also to employ 32 specially trained staff to investigate the treatment and possible abuse of elderly people in nursing homes and hospitals.
The problems in Leas Cross were happening elsewhere, Mr Kenny added.
Quoting again from the report, he went on: "Given the lack of structural funding, standards and oversights, the standards in Leas Cross are very likely to be replicated to a greater or lesser extent in institutions throughout the long-care system."