Nursing homes in Cork, Kerry and Donegal have been the subject of a number of complaints in relation to poor care and alleged abuse over the last three years, it has emerged.

According to reports obtained under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act by Fine Gael, the complaints were made by the families of people who were allegedly mistreated.

In one complaint, a patient at Hillcrest Nursing Home, a private facility in Letterkenny, Donegal, was found to have a broken shoulder two months after a fall.

The woman’s family made a complaint because they said that their mother had complained regularly of pain and they had made repeated calls for medical assistance for her.

A investigation by the HSE upheld the complaint.

In a different case relating to Falcarragh Community Hospital in Donegal, a public nursing home run by the HSE, a family complained that their father’s hands and feet were tied together with socks and he was placed facing a wall. Two nurses have admitted to tying up the man.

In that case, an investigation by the HSE upheld the complaint and the staff involved were sanctioned.

Meanwhile the FOI reports revealed that as many as 50 complaints relating to nursing homes in Cork and Kerry were upheld. These complaints ranged from the non-treatment of bedsore and ulcers to patients being left dehydrated.

Fine Gael has forwarded the reports to the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) and the Gardai.