Leas Cross Nursing Home was a nursing home

Nursing home

A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...

 near Swords, Dublin

Swords, Dublin

Swords is the county town of Fingal in Ireland. It is about 13 km north of Dublin city centre and is part of its commuter belt.- History :...

, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, which closed several weeks after a 2005 Prime Time

Prime Time

Prime Time is an Irish news analysis, current affairs and politics programme. It is broadcast on RTÉ One on Tuesday and Thursday nights between 21:30 and 22:10. It is currently presented by Miriam O'Callaghan, who has presented the programme since its commencement in 1996...

 television report revealed sub-standard living conditions there. The documentary showed a patient with several bedsore

Bedsore

Bedsores, more properly known as pressure ulcers or decubitus ulcers, are lesions caused by many factors—such as unrelieved pressure, friction, humidity, shearing forces, temperature, age, continence, and medication—to any part of the body, especially portions over bony or cartilaginous areas such...

s who went on to develop MRSA

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans. It is also called multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus...

. Public concern over the Leas Cross scandal led to the formation of the Health Information and Quality Authority

Health Information and Quality Authority

The Health Information and Quality Authority is an independent, government-funded agency in the Republic of Ireland which monitors the safety and quality of the Irish healthcare system...

 (HIQA).

Hynes Report

Peter McKenna, a 60 year old man with Down syndrome

Down syndrome

Down syndrome, or Down's syndrome, trisomy 21, is a chromosomal condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 21st chromosome. It is named after John Langdon Down, the British physician who described the syndrome in 1866. The condition was clinically described earlier in the 19th...

 and Alzheimers

Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...

, who died 13 days after being transferred to the home in 2000, was the subject of a report by Martin Hynes, former head of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service

Irish Blood Transfusion Service

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service , or Seirbhís Fuilaistriúcháin na hÉireann in Irish, was established in the Republic of Ireland as the Blood Transfusion Service Board by the Blood Transfusion Service Board Order, 1965, it took its current name in April 2000 by Statutory Instrument issued by...

. Mr. McKenna had been transferred from St. Michael's House to the nursing home despite the objections of his family - he was a ward of court. He needed round-the-clock nursing care but that was difficult to manage in the nursing home. St. Michael's House described the report as flawed.

O'Neill Report

A report by Professor Des O'Neill reviewed deaths at the home between 2002 and 2005, finding that care was deficient and it was consistent with a finding of institutional abuse

Institutional abuse

Institutional abuse can typically occur in a care home, nursing home, acute hospital or in-patient setting and can be any of the following:Institutional abuse also refers to child abuse in institutions where children were placed for their education, welfare, rehabilitation, or even protection...

.

The report also expressed concern at the short time between patients being transferred from hospitals to the nursing home, particularly in the case of patients from St. Itas Pschiatric Hospital

Portrane

Portrane or Portraine ) is a small seaside town one kilometre from, and merging into the larger town of Donabate in Fingal, north County Dublin, Ireland.- St. Ita's Hospital :...

. It also stated that there was almost a complete absence of systematic monitoring of deaths in Irish nursing homes.