Rsing homes were left isolated
compliant with risk assessment and infection control, yet the owners were complaining that they were not getting enough financial support.
He said that the private nursing home sector ‘comprises very wealthy companies which complain that the taxpayer is not doing enough for them. I wish to state exceptionally clearly that we need a total change in the way we look at the care of older people.’
‘We need to stop this game of blaming everybody and to accept the fact that we are not doing enough and have never done enough. Unless things change now, we are going to go down the same road.’
Mr Daly rejected this saying that the sector had been left isolated and the ‘dismay will live with us forever’.
He said nursing homes are the most highly regulated part of the health service and HIQA can close nursing homes where standards are not acceptable.
Deputy O’Dowd said no one had died from coronavirus in nursing homes in Hong Kong, adding: ‘I just get so angry at this.’
Referring to the deaths of 22 residents in Dealgan House, Deputy O’Dowd said: ‘We have had a serious problem with a private nursing home in Dundalk where there has been an awful lot of sadness and upset at the terrible outcome for so many people in a very short space of time.’
He noted that there seemed to be ‘a situation whereby out of a total of 24 professional staff, particularly nurses, only six were available to maintain that nursing home because of illness and absence for other reasons.’
He wanted to know if HIQA have ‘ the power to seek information from the nursing home, from the HSE and from others in order to get to the bottom of what happened and give closure to the families in Dundalk that are so distressed?’
He also expressed his sympathies to the families who have lost loved ones, particularly in nursing homes, and to the staff who cared for them. It is incredibly distressing.