One of the directors of a Dublin nursing home to which the Health Service Executive suspended admissions last week has revealed that admissions to his home were also suspended for six months in 2004.
Admissions to Bedford House Nursing Home in Balbriggan were suspended at that time by the former Northern Area Health Board following an inspection on the home, some of the findings of which were read into the Dáil record last week by Fine Gael TD Fergus O'Dowd.
Mr O'Dowd told the Dáil that in this home patients were bathed or showered only every 10 days, and rooms were "caked with faeces".
Last night Mr O'Dowd said the revelation that the same health board that was dealing with Leas Cross had suspended admissions to Bedford House in 2004 showed they could have taken the same action against Leas Cross.
He said concerns had been expressed about Leas Cross in 2003 and 2004 by staff at St Ita's Hospital in Portrane, yet admissions to the home were not suspended. "They obviously did not use the full powers available to them at that time in relation to Leas Cross," he said.
When asked about the findings of the 2004 inspection on Bedford House, one of its directors, who asked not to be identified by name, said there was a lot of "mud slinging" in that report and it wasn't correct. He had complained to the HSE about it.
He said the HSE stopped admissions to his home for six months after that inspection report. "I had to go to my solicitor and they restored my admissions," he said.
He also disclosed that when the registration of his home came up for renewal in late 2005, the HSE attached conditions to its re-registration. "I had to revert back to my lawyer," he said, adding that in July this year the conditions were removed.
Meanwhile, he said he had yet to be informed by the HSE why it suspended admissions to his home last week.
"All their allegations in the nursing home report about breaches of regulations are false and I'm going to take legal action against the HSE on that," he said.