The Dublin City Coroner's office was alerted to the deaths of at least two patients who were transferred to Leas Cross nursing home from St Ita's Psychiatric Hospital in north Dublin.
Around 20 older patients from the psychiatric hospital were sent to Leas Cross as part of a programme that began in September 2003. Seven of these patients died within a period of three to four months.
A letter from a consultant psychiatrist at St Ita's to health authorities in January of last year refers to the deaths of two patients for which the coroner's office was contacted. The deaths occurred close to Christmas in 2003.
The letter, to a senior official in the former Northern Area Health Board, does not contain any comment about Leas Cross or the circumstances of the deaths.
It reads: "I am just writing to update you regarding the transfer of patients to Leas Cross nursing home. Since the first discharge, there have been seven deaths since 2003. Three of those deaths took place over Christmas."
It adds that the consultant psychiatrist, along with another doctor, contacted the coroner regarding two of the deaths.
Meanwhile, St Michael's House, a disability organisation which transferred to Leas Cross a 60-year-old man who died in controversial circumstances two weeks afterwards, has defended its actions.
Peter McKenna, who had Down syndrome and Alzheimer's, was placed in the nursing home despite protests from his family and some clinicians at St Michael's House. An investigation commissioned by Dublin health authorities into the circumstances of his death was completed by Martin Hynes, former head of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service. It is believed to be highly critical of the decision to move Mr McKenna.
In a statement yesterday, St Michael's House said an earlier version of the Hynes report, in 2003, found the decision to transfer Mr McKenna to Leas Cross was appropriate. "Mr Hynes's initial second report is completely at odds with his first report and contains many inaccuracies. "