Moves to protect elderly can’t progress without a minister

ALMOST a third of recommendations to ensure the safety of some of the most vulnerable people in society cannot be put in place as there is no Health Minister.

The Department of Health has promised to act on the majority of recommendations made by the Commissioner for Older People in Northern Ireland to drive up standards in care homes here.

Among the actions it has said it will take are to provide human rights training for staff, while the health trusts will monitor when people remove their loved ones from care homes.

The information will be analysed and shared with the Regulation & Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA), Northern Ireland’s health watchdog, to ensure opportunities to improve services are not lost.

Health bosses yesterday issued their official response to the findings of an independent investigation into conditions at Dunmurry Manor Care home on the outskirts of west Belfast.

They provided a comprehensive report of the plan of action in response to the 59 recommendations made by Eddie Lynch in his damning report.

The document, Home Truths, contained a series of devastating Eddie Lynch, Older People’s Commissioner findings, including residents going weeks without medication, being left in agony with bedsores to the bone, and a failure to manage inappropriate behaviour by residents with dementia.

A number of the recommendations can only be implemented by Runwood Homes, the company that owns Dunmurry Manor.

However, out of the remaining 44 recommendations, the permanent secretary for the Department of Health, Richard Pengelly, said 18 of them require a ministerial decision to take them forward.

This includes a call by Mr Lynch for the introduction of an Adult Safeguarding Bill here to bring the province into line with the rest of the UK.

Mr Lynch said the legislation “should be introduced without delay” as “it remains arguable that a policy-based approach may not be human rights compatible as it does not guarantee an appropriate level of protection”.

While health officials have prepared advice on the matter for an incoming minister, the current political impasse means progress to address Mr Lynch’s concerns have stalled.

Despite this, Mr Pengelly said he is determined to address the issues identified by Mr Lynch and to deliver meaningful improvements on the ground.