Widespread care home standards breach

MORE than 40% of care homes investigated by a State watchdog have been found to be in breach of health regulations.

The Health Information and Quality Authority published 49 inspection reports on residential centres for older people around Ireland.

While inspectors found evidence of good practice and compliance with regulations and standards in 29 centres, they found evidence of non-compliance in 20 others.

Inspectors identified breaches in areas such as records, protection, staffing, training and staff development, governance and management, premises, infection control, health and social care needs, persons in charge, residents’ rights and individual assessment and care plans.

One centre in Dublin was found to be in breach of six regulations, including agency staff not receiving an induction, little activity provided for residents and poor maintenance of residents’ equipment.

The report also said: ‘Family members told the inspectors that when they raised concerns about staffing and other issues, staff and managers dealt with the issue at the time but that their complaint was not fully resolved and as a result the same problems would recur.’

There were also concerns raised in the HIQA report that residents were spending long periods of time with ‘little to do’ while inspectors also found gaps in documentation on care plans.