A Fermanagh nursing home which was shut down by a watchdog over care failings was visited 189 times by social workers in the 10 months before its closure, it has emerged.
Correspondence seen by The Irish News also reveals that a 'concerned relative' of a patient at the Ashbrooke home in Enniskillen claimed that a night nurse on duty was sleeping for three to four hours a night in April - a concern that sparked a major probe.
The facility, which at one point cared for 40 elderly people, became the first of its kind in Northern Ireland to be shut by the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) after inspectors raised serious concerns in August about filthy conditions and underweight residents.
Email exchanges between Runwood Homes, the private Essex-based company which ran Ashbrooke, and managers at the Western health trust also show that a 'safeguarding' investigation was ordered by the trust into the welfare of the vulnerable residents.
The trust was ultimately responsible for the vast majority of patients at Ashbrooke as it was the referring body.
It carried out a string of visits between last November - after complaints about care first emerged - and August 1, which included almost 190 visits by social work staff.
An email dated April 5, obtained through a Freedom of Information request, shows that a senior trust chief was also made aware of allegations around a nurse sleeping while in charge of residents.
The email trail shows the concerns were forwarded by the trust to Runwood's former Northern Ireland manager, John Rafferty.
Mr Rafferty responded: "We are putting measures in place so that all staff on night duty can come forward internally through the whistleblowing procedures and declare any concerns they have."
On the allegation of a duty nurse sleeping for up to four hours at night, he said: "We are talking about a short time period when this could have happened as the nurse had only commenced night duty."
While the home was closed to new admissions for a week in June due to the level of concerns around patient care, it re-opened.
It was not until a devastating spot inspection in mid-August by the RQIA that the home was finally stripped of its registration.
All Ashbrooke residents were moved to other nursing homes in the county.
Aidan Hanna, chief executive of NI Patient Voice, last night claimed the level of complaints in the 10 months before the home was closed indicated severe failings in the system.
"I would have concerns that a health trust continued to do business and refer patients to this home," he said.
Runwood homes, which operates 11 other homes across the north, apologised for the failings but is in the process of a legal appeal against the RQIA's decision to close Ashbrooke.
The Western trust declined to comment on queries put forward by the Irish News in respect of the outcome of its safeguarding investigation.
