New Leas Cross owner returns €680,000 profit

THE NEW owner of the controversial north Dublin nursing home formerly known as Leas Cross returned pre-tax profits of €680,000 last year.

Mowlam Healthcare Ltd, the largest nursing home operator in the country, reopened the former Leas Cross home last year. Accounts recently returned to the Companies Office show it engaged a sister firm to spend €655,000 on renovating the home, now known as Swords Nursing Home.

Leas Cross closed in August 2005 in the wake of a Prime Time Investigates report which found serious problems relating to running of the home. The first inquiry into the nursing home in 2006 by consultant geriatrician Prof Des O’Neill found care at Leas Cross constituted “institutional abuse”.

Earlier this week, the Cabinet granted an extension to the official inquiry into the running of Leas Cross until the end of the year.

Since reopening, Swords Nursing Home has been subject to three separate Health Service Executive inspections. The most recent published inspection found the home to have a good standard of management, but in two of the inspections non-compliances with regulations were recorded.