Workers Solidarity Movement

The report into the Leas Cross Nursing home scandal was a shocker. Elderly patients were dying in unexplained circumstances; others had open and infected sores which were left untreated; others still were being restrained and held against their wishes. Odd though isn’t it, given the uproar about what went on there, that so little attention was focused on the businessman who ran Leas Cross. There’s a reason for that.
Leas Cross was a ‘for profit’ medical establishment – the sort of thing Harney and Cowen are promoting as a solution across the health service here in Ireland. The report into what went on at Leas Cross found that ‘the principal cause of the decline in care standards failure of the home was the failure of the home to employ sufficient competent staff’.

Yet when this ‘decline’ was happening, Leas Cross was posting not just profits but big increases in its profits. In 2005 alone profits jumped up by 40%. At the time Leas Cross was owned by the businessman, John Aherne. Says it all: ‘for profit’ health care, no thanks.