A REPORT by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) on a nursing home that was subsequently taken over by the HSE found there had been inappropriate management of residents’ finances and that its policy for prevention, detection and reporting of abuse had been “inadequate”.
The report, published yesterday by Hiqa, in relation to an inspection of Woodlock Nursing Home, Portlaw, Co Waterford, last month found the registered provider, Timothy Kelleher, had made “insufficient progress” in implementing the required changes outlined in previous inspection reports.
Thirty actions were reviewed and Hiqa found Mr Kelleher had satisfactorily resolved just one, regarding access to the premises. Two further actions had been partially but not satisfactorily completed, the report stated.
Hiqa inspectors carried out an unannounced follow-up inspection of the nursing home on November 8th and 9th, 2011. There were 22 residents at the facility, which opened in March 2007, at the time of inspection. It was the 13th inspection of the home.
Following the inspection, Hiqa secured a court order at Carrick-on-Suir District Court on December 12th to cancel the 30-bed nursing home’s registration and the facility was taken over by the HSE last week. The Hiqa report highlighted 15 improvements that were still required at the facility. These included improvements relating to residents’ access to medicine, and to the care of residents with cognitive impairment and dementia.
The report found the policy for prevention, detection and reporting of abuse was “inadequate”.
“A number of incidents reviewed demonstrate a continued lack of commitment by the provider to safeguarding of residents from any abuse.
“The provider has consistently failed to adequately assess the needs of a resident who was involved in an incident of abuse with another resident.
“The monitoring system introduced in March 2011 following the late reporting of this incident, which had occurred on February 13th, 2011, is still in place but not adequately implemented.”
During the inspection, inspectors observed the resident in question unsupervised on two occasions during the day, with access to a female resident.
“On this inspection, inspectors reviewed an incident where a resident was physically brought to the floor by two staff in a restraint manner for non-compliance.
“This placed the resident at risk of serious injury. There was no evidence that this action was reported to the resident’s family, that it was adequately investigated and reviewed . . . and staff had no training for such an occurrence.”
Residents’ finances had not been managed in a safe and appropriate manner by the provider, the report found.
A spokesman for Woodlock Residential Care Limited said the company strongly refuted many of the findings in the Hiqa report.