COVID-19 UPDATE: Kilkenny cases rise to 259, disturbing new whistleblower claims about nursing home safety – report
The number of coronavirus cases in Kilkenny has risen to 259, according to the latest county-by-county breakdown of Covid-19 figures.
It comes amid disturbing new claims made by a whistleblower in a Health Service Executive (HSE) nursing home who said concerns raised by healthcare workers about the welfare of residents fell on “deaf ears”.
Some three in five of the total 1,375 Covid-19 deaths so far in the country are associated with residential care facilities.
The HSE staff member, who is currently being treated for Covid-19 after contracting the virus, lodged a 35-page dossier containing serious allegations of failings at the Dublin nursing home where he works to Health Minister Simon Harris and the CEO of the HSE, Paul Reid, last night.
In a statement published by the Irish Independent, the whistleblower called on the minister and Mr Reid to “immediately investigate shocking health and safety breaches that been ongoing for the last two months”.
The whistleblower claims he first raised his concerns management in mid-March, but that these were ignored.
He added patients and staff remain sick and that further deaths at the nursing home are “likely inevitable”.
PHOTO: Stock image
