Nursing homes object to publishing of reports

Private nursing home owners are opposing the manner in which inspection reports of facilities are being published by the Health Service Executive.

They have argued that the policy may have no legal basis and may be in breach of constitutional justice.

In correspondence with the HSE in recent weeks, the Irish Nursing Homes Organisation (INHO) suggested that there was no provision within existing legislation for the publication of reports of inspection visits by the HSE on its website.

The organisation is particularly concerned that nursing home owners should have a right of reply published along with the findings of an inspection report.

In a letter to the HSE sent in early December, the INHO said that the existing policy on publication represented "a fundamental breach of fair procedures and constitutional justice in that any response to the report provided by the respective nursing home is omitted from entering on the website".

The HSE has rejected the criticism of its policy.

It has claimed that nursing homes are given a period of time to respond to HSE inspection reports.

The HSE has also maintained that it would continue to publicise nursing home inspection reports in the public interest.

The chief executive of the INHO, Tadhg Daly, yesterday said that its members accepted that there was a demand for inspection reports to be published.

However, he said that there were concerns about how this was being carried out at present by the HSE.

He said nursing home owners were anxious that they should have a right to tell "the other side of the story" in relation to findings made against their facilities.

Mr Daly said INHO members believed that this was particularly important given the current lack of national standards in relation to inspections of nursing homes.

He said in January the organisation would review with its members the rejection by the HSE of its concerns regarding the publication of inspection reports and decide on its response.

In a reply to the INHO sent a fortnight ago, the HSE national director for primary, community and continuing care, Aidan Browne, said that under existing legislation, there was no prohibition on it publishing the findings of inspection reports on its website.

"You state in your letter that the existing 'policy is a fundamental breach of fair procedures and constitutional justice in that any response to the report provided by the respective nursing home is omitted from entering on the website'.

"You will be aware that the nursing home proprietors and/or persons in charge of nursing homes are given 10 working days in which to respond to the accuracy of the inspection reports.

"In that context, the nursing homes are afforded a right of reply.

"I would further draw your attention to the nursing homes inspection reports website, which clearly states that the reports reflect the findings of the inspection teams at the time of inspection," Mr Browne wrote.

He said the HSE believed that publication was warranted as it was an area of considerable public interest.

Mr Browne said he was surprised at the INHO raising such concerns at this stage as it had been consulted in relation to the publication of inspection reports.

The HSE began publishing inspection reports last July.

Last May, the Information Commissioner, Emily O'Reilly, expressed concern about the length of time it had taken for the reports to be made public.

Previously some reports had been made available under the Freedom of Information Act.

However, many applications for the release of such inspection reports had been turned down, often on the grounds of commercial sensitivity.