The family of a 60-year-old disabled man who died two weeks after being admitted to the Leas Cross nursing home in north Dublin have been told they will receive the report of an investigation into his death next month, barring any unforeseen circumstances.
The pledge was made to the family of the late Peter McKenna by Minister for Health Mary Harney yesterday evening when she met them at Leinster House.
After the hour-long meeting, Dan Moore, brother of the deceased, said he expected to receive the report by the end of October as long as there were no "legal mishaps" along the way.
He described the meeting with Ms Harney as positive and said she had assured him and his sister, Mary, they would receive the full report and not a "truncated, condensed or diluted" version of it.
The report was compiled by Martin Hynes, former head of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service, and was sent to the Health Service Executive (HSE) last month.
Mr McKenna, who had Down's syndrome and Alzheimer's disease, died in October 2000 some 13 days after being transferred from St Michael's House, a disability service-provider in north Dublin, to the Leas Cross private nursing home. The nursing home closed earlier this year.
The HSE withdrew patients from it after it featured on the RTÉ PrimeTime Investigates series.
During his short stay at Leas Cross, Mr McKenna missed an appointment at Beaumont Hospital and had to be rushed to the hospital a few days later. He died of blood poisoning within hours of his arrival at Beaumont.
His family, who did not want him transferred to Leas Cross but were powerless to do anything as he was a ward of court, sought an investigation.
Mr Moore said last evening he and his family had been seeking answers for four years, since the first anniversary of his brother's death. He was shown a draft of Mr Hynes's report in June and made notes from it.
His notes indicate that the report is critical of St Michael's House for not carrying out any "meaningful" assessment of Leas Cross before Mr McKenna's transfer. It also criticised Leas Cross for not sending somebody in the ambulance with Mr McKenna when he was rushed to Beaumont.
St Michael's House has sent over 300 pages of comment on the report to the HSE, defending its actions and saying it made the decision to transfer Mr McKenna "in good faith". The HSE's legal advisers are examining the report.
A spokesman for Ms Harney said last night it was the intention of the HSE to have the report published in a matter of weeks.