A SECOND high-level investigation has been ordered into Muckamore Abbey Hospital following fresh allegations of abuse, the Irish News has learned.
Health watchdog the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) last night confirmed it received an alert from the Belfast health trust on December 17 2018 that a further 'Level 3 Serious Adverse Incident' (SAI) review was taking place into the Co Antrim facility.
'Level 3' investigations are extremely rare in the Northern Ireland health service and are only triggered in the most extreme circumstances.
The new independent probe will centre on "the care and treatment of a former patient", according to an RQIA spokesman.
The development comes just two months after the publication of a separate SAI level 3 - ordered in September 2017 - which found harrowing incidents of abuse and concluded patients' lives were "compromised" at Muckamore.
Disturbing details of patients "lying on the floor and being kicked" by staff and of others being kneed in the groin and "dragged by the hair" were outlined alongside serious failings of senior hospital managers to inform families and escalate it further.
The hospital is currently at the centre of the biggest criminal adult safeguarding probe of its kind in the north, with
a dedicated team of PSNI officers examining 158 alleged incidents of 'ill treatment' relating to images captured on CCTV cameras.
Almost 20 staff - mainly nurses - have been suspended from Muckamore, which is a regional inpatient facility for adults with severe learning disabilities.
The Irish News asked the Belfast trust to provide details of the new high-level SAI review, including its terms of reference.
Read more:
- Belfast Trust 'suppressed' details of abuse scandal at Muckamore Abbey hospital
- Belfast health trust boss admits failures in reporting Muckamore abuse to department
- Houses searched in Muckamore Abbey Hospital abuse investigation
A trust spokesman confirmed the organisation had commissioned a further "fully independent investigation" into Muckamore but said he could not provide further details.
It is not yet known who will head up the fresh probe.
Some families of patients who were abused at the hospital have raised concerns about the first SAI, saying it "doesn't go far enough" in terms of holding senior managers to account about delays in alerting government to the crisis.
Last month The Irish New revealed details of private correspondence in which senior Department of Health officials castigated the trust over "wholly unacceptable" delays in first reporting the abuse.
The trust has repeatedly apologised to patients and families affected since the story first broke last July.
Pressure is mounting for a public inquiry into the scandal with relatives calling on Secretary of State Karen Bradley to intervene in the absence of a power-sharing government.
