Banned from visiting after I complained about dad’s care
Woman blasts HSE in nursing home row
RELATIVES of patients who complained about poor HSE service have been barred from visiting their loved ones.
Lourda Finn was banned from seeing her father at Cappahard Lodge Nursing Home in Co Clare after she told workers about the extensive bruising she had noticed on him on two separate occasions in 2006.
She said: “I think once you raise issues and concerns around poor care practices I think your right to visit is revoked.”
Ms Finn and her sister were told their trips to the home were restricted unless they signed a legal form undertaking to behave themselves.
When they refused, they were barred from visiting their late father, who suffered from Alzheimer’s. She told RTE Investigates: “Sitting Officer chats to the swan beside him holding his hand, he wouldn’t let go, and at 10pm they told us we had to be out of the unit.”
In a separate case Dubliner Patrick Fitzgerald found himself locked out of Cherry Orchard Hospital in Dublin after he complained about poor service.
His wife Anne, who suffered from a life-changing brain injury after slipping on ice nine years ago, is a patient in the Sycamore Unit. When he was critical of the poor Patrick Fitzgerald can’t see wife Anne as often service, complaints were made against him for aggressive behaviour, allegations he denies.
Patrick’s visiting hours were cut to three hours a day and a security guard was posted to the Sycamore Unit.
When he arranged a protest against the restrictions by picketing the entrance, his hours were cut to an hour a day.
Now Patrick is allowed to visit Anne from 2pm to 3pm Monday to Thursday.
While the HSE issued an apology to the Finn sisters six years after their father’s death in 2013, Ms Finn is doubtful the HSE has learnt anything.
She added: “And as you can see this man Patrick Fitzgerald is now being subjected to very cruel, inhumane treatment and his wife is being denied the comfort of her family.” THIS swan looks like it’s trying to pluck up some courage as it comes face-to-face with a garda.
No feathers were ruffled during the brief traffic stop and the majestic creature was sent on its way.
The animal was safely shepherded off the R445 in Naas, Co Kildare, on Swan is helped to safety in Co Kildare Wednesday evening by officers. A Garda tweet said: “Naas Roads Policing, ‘I’m too busy swanning about to stick my beak in your business, I’m just winging it Garda.’
“Swan on the R445, Gardai safely removed him.”