Nursing home scandal: 'It was shocking. But not as shocking as what we'd seen ourselves'

Extra.ie​

17 hours ago

A couple of weeks ago, Paul Guy was on holiday in Germany. An avid tennis fan, his wife got him tickets to see the men's final at the Hamburg Open for his 50th birthday.
The day after he got there, he received a phone call from an editor in RTÉ television, telling him there was a 'private matter' they needed to discuss with him.
Guy explained where he was, and agreed they could meet on his return. It was made clear to him that the rest of his family should probably be there too. Paul Guy. Pic: RTÉ Investigates
'My greatest fear was that it was about dad's nursing home,' he says. 'I hoped it wasn't. But that was my immediate inkling.'
After getting back on the Monday, Paul had to wait another few days before his family was ready to talk with RTÉ.
'One of my sisters was away so it was Thursday by the time we were able to meet them in my dad's house in Tallaght,' he says.
The Guy family – two brothers Paul and Dave, and two sisters, Sarah and Kassandra – sat down with the Prime Time Investigates team to watch footage recently filmed by one of their undercover reporters at the Beneavin Manor nursing home in Glasnevin on Dublin's northside.
While Paul was somewhat prepared, it still made for incredibly disturbing viewing. Audeon Guy. Pic: RTÉ Investigates
It showed their father, 80-year-old Audeon Guy, being allegedly manhandled by two members of staff – held by the waist of his trousers by one carer, his walking frame was steered down a corridor into his room.
Although loudly and persistently protesting, Audeon's trousers were pulled down, exposing his incontinence pad, before he was 'forcibly' pushed into a chair.
Naturally, his children were distressed at the scenes. However, Paul says the manner in which his father was treated did not come as a 'revelation' to him. Since Audeon went into Beneavin Manor in January, Paul and his siblings had noticed a litany of issues with his care and made several official complaints, which were upheld.
'It was shocking,' he says. 'But not as shocking as what we'd seen ourselves, I think it just reaffirmed what our family wasn't happy with.'
After extensive discussions, the Guy family agreed to allow Prime Time Investigates to use some of the footage featuring their dad in a programme exposing practices at facilities run by the country's largest provider of private nursing homes, Emeis Ireland. Paul, Sarah, Kassandra and Dave Guy with their father Audeon Guy. Pic: RTÉ Investigates
The RTÉ show was contacted by a 'whistleblower', a nurse who'd reported a number of her concerns about standards of care to the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), the statutory, Government-funded agency that monitors safety and quality of Ireland's healthcare and social care systems.
She claims they took more than four months to follow up on her complaints, which compelled her to go to the state broadcaster. As part of its investigation, RTÉ sent in two reporters posing as healthcare assistants, one to Beneavin Manor, the other to The Residence Portlaoise, both run by Emeis Ireland.
They filmed footage showing a long list of failures at both facilities, including chronic staff shortages, vulnerable older people being left unsupervised, inappropriate handling of residents and shortages of basic supplies like bed linens, towels, gloves and sanitary wipes.
The almost universal reaction to the alarming television report was one of disgust, despair and anger. Emeis Ireland issued an apology to all residents and their families for 'the suffering and distress experienced as a result of failures identified in the care provided.' Audeon Guy. Pic: RTÉ Investigates
It also said it recognised and deeply regretted the 'breach of trust' and 'any failure to uphold the dignity of some residents at all times'. The statement said Emeis Ireland had commenced a comprehensive review across both nursing homes.
Advocates for the elderly were unanimous in their condemnation, pointing out that it's 20 years since RTÉ did a similar undercover sting at Leas Cross Nursing Home in Swords, north Dublin. Their revelations of inadequate staffing levels and substandard living conditions caused public outcry and led to the establishment of HIQA. Leas Cross was subsequently shut down.
Safeguarding Ireland repeated its calls for the establishment of an interdepartmental, interagency working group to implement recommendations made in April 2024 in the Law Reform Commission's report.
Patricia Rickard-Clarke is chairperson of the group that promotes measures for vulnerable adults to protect them from all forms of abuse. She told RTÉ that HIQA is limited in what it can do about complaints and concerns, and that introducing the recommendations would finally provide a legal framework to tackle failures in the nursing home sector.
'The Law Reform Commission sets out a number of offences that straight away could be enacted under criminal law,' she explained. 'This is the Department of Justice's responsibility. So, an offence of intentional or reckless abuse and neglect or ill treatment, an offence for exposure to serious harm, an offence of endangerment. The criminal law, it's all set out in the 2024 Bill.'
Safeguarding Ireland, she continued, wants an independent authority that 'will have functions and roles in relation to adult safeguarding to protect people from abuse'.
'It would have the function of receiving reports of suspected abuse or actual abuse,' she said. 'And it would have the statutory function of responding to those abuses.'
The implementation of the recommendations is a large part of the reason that Paul and his family made the difficult decision to go public about their father's case. Concerned about Audeon's privacy and dignity, allowing him to be named a week after the distressing footage of his treatment was aired on television was not something they took lightly.
'This has caused a lot of trauma throughout our family,' says Paul. 'My dad is an incredible man, he never spoke a bad word about anyone, he's very charitable and principled. I think he would have wanted me to do this.'
On Tuesday night, Prime Time featured an emotional interview with Paul.
'No one should have to go through what we've seen,' he told them. 'No one should be handled like our father was. These are human people – people who lost their dignity and no one should have to go through that.'
The toll this is taking on Paul is clear to see when we meet this week at his home in Glasnevin, which is a 15-minute walk from Beneavin Manor.
He's shattered, and a little overwhelmed at the response to his father's situation. He says he awoke this morning to at least 25 messages from people across Ireland, and some from France, who have loved ones in Emeis-run nursing homes.
'It's a French-owned company,' he explains. 'The messages are from families either offering help and support, looking for advice, or saying thanks for bringing it to the public's attention, that they've been trying to do this for years.'
Audeon, who worked for An Post for 40 years, is originally from Inchicore in Dublin. He moved his family out to Tallaght several decades ago, and after the break-up of his marriage around 18 years ago, he remained there, surrounded by good neighbours and friends.
Last November, he suffered an accidental fall down the stairs at his home. With a broken hip and damaged neck, he was admitted to Tallaght Hospital. His family had suspected he was beginning to struggle with his memory, but he'd refused to go for tests.
During his stay in hospital he was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a rare type of the disease that causes severe confusion and hallucinations. It was a shocking diagnosis, one the family was still coming to terms with as they tried to find a suitable place for him to move into once his hip had healed.
'He can be quite forgetful and sometimes aggressive,' explains Paul. The hallucinations can cause Audeon to see 'bizarre things', but he also has moments
of lucidity.
'If he was in full dementia it might be easier,' says Paul. 'Last Friday I called in and he told me that he knew he was in a nursing home, not in a hotel. That was really tough.'
Capable and fiercely independent up until his fall, it's been a difficult time for his loved ones dealing with this new reality. Given his night terrors and
other care needs, their only option was to find him a nursing home. They looked at 17 properties and spent days going through HIQA reports in an effort to help with the decision.
'We needed a place specific to his condition, so that filters a lot of places out. We were told he'd need one-to-one care,' says Paul.
According to RTÉ, the most recent publicly available HIQA inspection report for Beneavin Manor is from November 2024, in which it describes residents being very happy and the centre being well managed. It also says the quality and safety of the services provided were of a good standard and overall, it found it to be largely compliant.
However, shortly after Audeon moved into the home on January 25, his children began to notice issues they were unhappy with.
'His toenails were left to grow and rot,' says Paul. 'We found him sitting alone in a corridor tearing up bits of paper, which was supposed to be an activity. There was urine all over the bathroom floor in his room.'
He says there have been other concerns – the standard of his diet, how many times he's been brought outdoors on good weather days, the availability of clean clothes and if he's been brought to Mass, an important issue for them, given how religious Audeon has always been.
Paul acknowledges the severity of his father's dementia. 'But you would think if you're paying just over €6,000 a month [to Beneavin Manor] they would have professional carers capable of looking after someone with that condition,' he says. 'Also, they were the ones to say they'd take him in and give him one-to-one care.'
The Guy family made several complaints to management about their father's care, mentioning the lack of carers, and incidents they witnessed of residents being left on their own, sometimes on a toilet, for extended periods of time.
There was also a distressing incident, when his daughters were visiting him, when a carer put their hand on Audeon's genital area to check if he was wet.
'You can't do that,' says Paul.
The family was told in early March that their complaints were being upheld by management and that measures had been put in place to correct them. Three weeks later, however, the Prime Time Investigates reporter captured the distressing footage of their father.
Paul says that even without the RTÉ footage, he believes he'd still be making complaints about his dad's care. In recent weeks he got a voicemail from Audeon, which he played for Extra.ie, in which you can clearly hear a care worker asking him who he is calling.
When they realise it's Paul, they tell Audeon to delete it.
'In the contract we signed with Beneavin, it stipulates the resident is free to communicate at all times in regards to their safety and well-being,' says Paul.
'I went into Dad the next day, he was terrified to make any more calls, so I immediately reported it to management and they said they'd look into it.'
Paul says he is also 'liaising with An Garda Síochána, because there are issues they deem to be an assault'.
The Guy family is desperate to find their dad a new nursing home. But Paul says they no longer trust HIQA or its reports. He wants an 'independent' report done on the next facility his father goes into, and for the HSE and the Minister for Older People, Kieran O'Donnell, to come to the Guys with suitable alternatives. It's the least, he believes, they are owed.
'When I saw that footage, my first instinct was to go in there and get Dad out of there,' says Paul, his voice cracking. 'But it's simply not that easy. His needs are complex and there's limited availability in other nursing homes. They have to do an assessment and that takes time. The home has to be suitable for dementia, and it has to be in the Fair Deal scheme.'
HIQA told Extra.ie: 'We will be taking the necessary actions with the provider to ensure safe and effective care and support to all residents.
'On foot of a request from the Minister of State with responsibility for Older People, HIQA has also commenced a review of all nursing homes operated by the provider group, and we will provide an interim report to the Minister this week.
'HIQA encourages residents and their family and friends to engage with us directly about their experiences so that we can support the delivery of safe and effective care and support for all residents.'
For now, Paul and his siblings are visiting Audeon every day.
'We're doing memory games with him, helping him to exercise, bringing in food to him as well,' says Paul.
When I ask about the level of anger he's feeling right now, Paul takes a long pause before answering.
'I don't do conflict easily,' he eventually replies. 'I have a sober approach to it, I try to do everything by the book. I'm disappointed, upset and shocked about what happened to Dad, but I'm equally frustrated because of the broken promises they made to us.
'Everything they said they'd change to make sure Dad would get better care, but he didn't.'