The scope of the Naas General Hospital inquiry could widen after a meeting of the regulatory body for nursing, Bord Altranais, today.
Today's meeting follows the revelation that a nurse at the hospital was suspended amid allegations that patients had been administered drugs not prescribed for them.
Bord Altranais has the power to conduct a fitness to practise investigation and can seek a High Court order temporarily removing the nurse from its register.
While the South Western Area Health Board (SWAHB), which governs Naas General, has launched an inquiry, the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) says it cannot begin a formal investigation until the registration status of the nurse is established.
Bord Altranais will consider her position at today's meeting. The 31-year-old nurse from the west of Ireland has not been charged with any offence.She who worked under contract from the agency, Nurse On Call, and is understood to have worked at three medical institutions. One of them, Tallaght Hospital, has already begun a review of case files but a second - understood to be Blackrock Clinic - says it has not been contacted by the ERHA, the gardaí or the SWAHB in relation to the allegations.
The Garda has launched an investigation and last week exhumed the body of Mr John Gethings (77) who died at Naas General last March, a week after being admitted for a heart complaint.
Their inquiry is understood to be focused on the treatment received by two other patients at the hospital at around the same time.
The nurse worked at Naas from the beginning of the year until her suspension earlier this month. She worked at Tallaght Hospital between November 2002 and January 2003.