Care home was non-compliant
A residential home run by St John of God Community Services was found to be non-compliant in respect to regulations regarding staffing, governance and management, risk management procedures and protection, following an unannounced HIQA inspection earlier this year.
The inspection in February of this year was triggered by information received by HIQA regarding a safeguarding issue which had occurred at the centre in 2015.
There are five men living in the centre, four of whom moved there from St Mary’s Drumcar campus after the centre opened in January 2013.
The safeguarding issue concerned one man entering the adjacent bedroom of another resident and the inspection was carried out to follow up on this and also to inspect current safeguarding and risk management arrangements in place to assess the safety of residents.
According to the report published on the HIQA website ‘ The inspector found the safeguarding incident that occurred in this centre in 2015 was not managed, investigated or responded to appropriately by the provider’.
The incident was not appro- priately investigated and while an undated and unsigned safeguarding report appeared to confirm that ‘ an abusive interaction took place’, the inspector said it contained ‘inconsistent information.’
Staffing at the time of the incident was ‘not sufficiently supervising residents in line with their assessed needs’.
The two residents involved in the incident remained living in bedrooms next to each other, and a keypad lock has since been put on the bedroom door of one of the residents to stop the other resident having access to them.
No other alternative approaches were taken and the inspector felt that this did not demonstrate that all safeguarding considerations were taken to protect the resident.
In addition the inspector found ‘regulatory failings regarding managerial risk oversight and post incident response, protection and safeguarding of residents, their finances and personal information and the promotion of residents’ rights.’
While there did not appear to immediate risks to the residents at the centre, the inspector ‘was not assured by the systems and oversight in place, based on the evidence gathered on the inspection.’
‘ The levels of behaviours of concern and potential risks were of a very serious nature at the centre,’ the report found.
It was also discovered that €100 was missing from the finances of two residents, with staff saying that other staff must have taken it out for residents’ activities. The inspector found that there wasn’t a system for signing out money and the whereabouts of the money was unclear.
Concern was also raised in regards to personal information about residents and incident reports being kept in an unlocked press.
Reacting to the HIQA report, Saint John of God Community Services confirmed that a safeguarding report was received in 2015. ‘ This report was fully investigated and in response, plans were put in place to enhance the safety of residents. In the intervening three year period, no further concerns have been raised and residents are living safely in their homes.’
The spokesperson said: ‘Staff regularly support residents to go shopping and residents’ finances are kept in a safe and all transactions are fully accounted for. In line with best practice the process has been amended to record cash withdrawals in addition to the expenditure and the unspent balances returned to the residents’ account.’
‘ The actions set out in the report have been fully implemented and all measures are in place to safeguard residents and their finances.
‘Staff of Saint John of God North East Services, together with members of the management team, and in collaboration with residents’ families and advocates, are committed to the provision and development of quality person-centred residential services that bring about improvements in the quality of life of the residents living within all of our facilities.