6 days ago
Nursing Homes: Hiqa tells PAC it may step up its out-of-hours inspections
The country's nursing home watchdog is to consider upping the number of out-of-hours inspections it carries out across the sector, the Dáil's public accounts committee has heard.
Finbarr Colfer, chief inspector designate at the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa), said 24% of nursing home inspections were carried out outside normal working hours.
'It is one of the questions we are examining ourselves in relation to perhaps a more scheduled approach to 24/7 types of inspections,' he said. 'We're very conscious that the health services are operating on a 24/7 basis.'
Mr Colfer made the comments amid questioning from Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly at PAC session on Thursday.
Hiqa's appearance at the committee follows shocking revelations in an RTÉ Investigates documentary last month. The programme was focused on two nursing homes run by Emeis Ireland — The Residence in Portlaoise and Beneavin Manor in north Dublin.
It details a litany of disturbing practices, including:
A man being refused a toilet break for 25 minutes due to chronic understaffing;
A resident repeatedly left in an unchanged incontinence pad despite being able to use the toilet and having requests to do so denied;
'Fake' activity logs showing residents engaged in pursuits that never occurred.
Hiqa chief executive Angela Fitzgerald apologised to those affected by the practices at the nursing homes, adding the body is taking 'regulatory action' with the company operates the two sites.
'I was shocked and appalled and felt let down by the provider in terms of what I witnessed,' she said.
Asked by Fine Gael TD James Geoghegan if she had ever seen anything worse than practices shown in the documentary, Ms Fitzgerald said she had not.
However, Ms Fitzgerald said that, during inspections at the two nursing homes, Hiqa inspectors did not see any practices as shown on the RTÉ documentary.
'Failure of management and supervision'
In total, it was confirmed 22 of the 25 Emeis Ireland-run nursing homes were inspected since the RTÉ documentary aired in June.
Deputy chief inspector Susan Cliffe said the practices stemmed from 'a failure of management and supervision' at the Beneavin Manor nursing home.
'I think it was a failure to allow for the stress that was on the centre, the failure to recognise it,' Ms Cliffe said.
'There's three floors in that centre and there's three very different cultures on three different floors. The residents with the greatest level of need and the higher dependency were all accommodated on the one floor.'
Asked by Mr Geoghegan if there had been any resignations, Ms Cliffe said a number of staff were no longer employed at Beneavin Manor. However, she added she was unaware of any resignations of more senior staff and managers at the nursing home.
During the committee appearance, Ms Fitzgerald told TDs Hiqa is currently engaging with the Department of Health around strengthening existing regulations surrounding nursing homes.
The committee also heard there has been one nursing home closure so far this year, with seven homes being closed in 2024.
This is the highest figure in a number of years, with the closest being three closures in 2021 and 2023.
