By Colm Daly

Inspectors from the Health Information and Quality Authority said they had uncovered serious allegations of physical and verbal abuse, which had been reported to the gardaí.

The home is run by members of  the well known Lipsett family who have denied any abuse by their carers of elderly people in Rostrevor house.

HIQA has revealed five key allegations against a particular care assistant known as ‘P’ in a court affidavit. In one instance, ‘P’ is alleged to have banged a residents head against a door jam and asked staff members to say the resident fell and hit his head. The case was reported to the owner of the home but no action appears to have been taken. It was also alleged that the same care assistant kicked a resident a number of times on the floor.

In another case it is alleged, the same care assistant routinely took a female resident to the bathroom on his own. According to the affidavit, when he did so, staff members said that they could hear the resident screaming in the toilet and that this was a regular occurrence.

During inspections carried out on 25 and 26 May, HIQA inspectors discovered an alarming history of falls, injuries and other incidents in a sample of eight residents. It found 24 recorded incidents of falls in seven of the eight residents, which occurred last year and this year.

The owners of Rostrevor house attempted to have the court order transferring mangement to the HSE overturned but Circuit Court President Judge Matthew Deery. He said he was satisfied that the HSE was the body now running the home and it had to make decisions concerning the welfare of residents.

Meanwhile, a director of the Rostrevor Nursing Home has said that she never received any complaints about the care that they were receiving. Sarah Lipsett said allegations were ‘completely unfounded’. She said that allegations made by three care workers to HIQA inspectors were do with an internal staff dispute.