The author of the independent report into the death of a 60-year-old disabled man who died within days of having been transferred from St Michael's House to Leas Cross nursing home in north Dublin has accepted that he "may have erred" in describing the condition of the man in his report as "grave" at the time of the transfer. This occurred because, when completing his report, he did not have the benefit of two particular medical reports.
Martin Hynes, former head of the Blood Transfusion Service Board, who conducted the independent investigation into the death of Peter McKenna, states this in an addendum to the final draft of his report, which has now been sent to St Michael's House.
St Michael's House, one of the largest disability service providers in the State, was criticised in Mr Hynes's final report for not properly assessing the suitability of the controversial Leas Cross nursing home for Mr McKenna; for not following up complaints which had been made by families of other clients about Leas Cross; for not properly supervising the handover of Mr McKenna to Leas Cross nursing home; and for failing to provide appropriate support to Mr McKenna once he had arrived at Leas Cross.
St Michael's House rejects these criticisms. Paul Ledwidge, its chief executive, said yesterday that Leas Cross had been used many times before by St Michael's House. One family, whose relative had been sent to the home and had spent 12 months there prior to her death in August 2000, were so pleased with the arrangements that they had presented a car to St Michael's House. Mr Ledwidge insisted that all complaints made by families about Leas Cross were followed up. He claimed that staff had visited Mr McKenna on three occasions after he had been transferred there. He also said that the handover of Mr McKenna to Leas Cross was "thorough".
Mr Ledwidge stressed that a previous report completed by Mr Hynes into Mr McKenna's death in October 2003 had exonerated St Michael's House.
That report had stated: "To have attempted to care for him, for an indeterminate period, within the facilities and resources then available to St Michael's House would simply have been wrong and would not have properly met his identified care needs." This report had added that Leas Cross was a registered nursing home and "there was no reason why he should not have been admitted to it".
Mr Ledwidge said Mr Hynes had met him for an hour last December before completing his second report. He claims Mr Hynes failed to interview all staff who had cared for Mr McKenna before reaching his conclusions and that he failed "in any adequate way to explain the radical difference between his October 2003 and his May 2005 reports".
He said St Michael's House was not objecting to the publication of the Hynes reports, something sought by Mr McKenna's family, but he felt that comments of rebuttal made by St Michael's House, as well as more recent comments made by Mr Hynes, should be contained in the main body of the report rather than in an addendum so that those who read only the main report would not be given a misleading impression.
Mr Ledwidge believes that the entire circumstances of Mr McKenna's death should now be investigated independently by somebody with a medical background.
Mr McKenna, who had Down Syndrome and Alzheimer's disease, died of septicaemia in October 2000 - some 13 days after being transferred to Leas Cross. The nursing home closed earlier this year. The HSE withdrew patients from it after it was featured on RTÉ's Prime Time.
Mr Hynes said yesterday that he had no comment at this stage.
A spokesman for the HSE said: "We are happy with the Hynes report and intend to publish it."