Owner of nursing home where 23 died tells of despair

THE owner of an award-winning private nursing home, which saw 23 deaths from the coronavirus, has said staff are deeply saddened by the loss of the “dearly loved” residents.

“We are grieving with the families of those who have lost loved ones at this time,” said Dermot McDermott, owner of the Kiltipper Woods home, in Dublin.

And he said some of the residents “have been with us for many years and were great friends”.

HSE figures have detailed where 1,030 deaths occurred in 167 facilities caring for older people across the country.

“Kiltipper Woods provides a high-quality care service and consistently achieves the highest standards of care,” Mr McDermott said. “This has been recognised by Hiqa in our fully compliant inspection reports and in the multiple awards we have won in the last few years.

“In response to the pandemic, we put in place detailed infection-control plans.

“We provided additional infection-control training to all our staff and provided guidance to our residents in effective infection control as well.

“We restricted visiting in late February. At this time, we also purchased additional PPE in preparation for a possible outbreak,” he told the Irish Independent.

He said throughout this time it had been in regular contact with the families of residents and had facilitated ongoing communication between residents and their families using video calls. “We also set up an in-house radio station to keep up ongoing communication with our residents and to provide activities and a place for families and the community to send messages to the residents and staff.”

The home has had cases of Covid-19 since mid-April.

“We are working hard to continue this protection for our residents,” he said. “We continue to provide a high standard of care to all our residents including those who are now in recovery from Covid-19.

“Our priority and main focus is now on recovery of our residents. We are looking to the future with renewed energy and optimism.”

He was speaking after the HSE said around seven longterm residential facilities, including a number of nursing homes, are still at significant risk due to coronavirus outbreaks. The HSE said the public and private nursing facilities, including nursing homes, were at the centre of the most intensive monitoring.

Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty said Rock Community Hospital, in Donegal, had been closed down after half of the residents died from the virus.

Residents had been transferred to another home, he told the Dáil.