HIQA: No toilet seats in some bathrooms at disabled facility

A HSE-RUN centre for adults with mental disabilities didn’t have toilet seats or toilet paper in some bathrooms, while some doors were missing handles and furniture was found broken on the premises, inspectors found.

Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) inspectors were so concerned about the state of the The Hawthorns facility in Stillorgan, Co. Dublin, that the Chief Inspector of Social Services issued a ‘notice of proposal’ to cancel the centre’s registration completely.

The centre cares for up to 23 adults with mild to severe intellectual disabilities and contains five detached bungalows with green areas to the back and front. HIQA inspectors made an unannounced visit on October 17 last year and found that the centre ‘was not ensuring that the quality of the service provided for residents was safe and of a good quality’.

‘There were areas in the centre which were not clean during the inspection including interior and exterior areas. There was no toilet seats or toilet paper available for residents in a number of bathrooms. In one of the shower rooms there was black mould on the ceiling,’ the inspectors said. When the inspectors asked staff about this, they were told that one resident prefers not to have a seat on their toilet.

In one premises, there were a number of damaged doors with missing door handles, and this was found to be ‘leading to an immediate risk for residents as there was the possibility of getting locked into the bathroom or bedroom when the door closed’.

Inspectors also found there were a ‘number of pieces of broken furniture with sharp edges’.

HIQA notified the Chief Inspector of Social Services, who issued the ‘notice of proposal’ to cancel The Hawthorns’s registration.

HIQA inspectors then made a return visit on December 12 after the centre submitted an improvement plan. It found that ‘improvements were at the early stages and yet to fully impact on the lived experience of residents in the centre’.