A whistleblower who worked at a Galway care home was suspended by her employer after raising concerns over alleged elder abuse with Hiqa.
The Labour Court has ordered the owners of Áras Chois Fharraige home in Spiddal, Co Galway, to pay former care assistant Anna Monaghan €17,500 for making a protected disclosure concerning alleged wrongdoings regarding patient care at the home to the Health Information and Quality Authority.
The mother of nine, in her 50s, was suspended with pay from June 20th to November 7th 2014.
The Labour Court made the award under section 12 of whistleblower legislation, the Protected Disclosures Act, 2014.
In its ruling, the Labour Court found that the suspension was due to “the disclosure of information related to the alleged abuse and alleged wrongdoings regarding patient care made by Ms Monaghan on April 29th, 2014”.
Labour Court
The court said it was satisfied that, were it not for the complaint, Ms Monaghan would not have been suspended.
The home today cares for 42 residents and employs 40.
A witness in the case, a colleague of Ms Monaghan, Kathleen Larkin, said that when she asked when Ms Monaghan would be returning to work from suspension, the matron replied “over my dead body will she be in this home again”.
The matron disputed this, but the court came to the conclusion that the testimony of Ms Larkin was more reliable.
At the hearing, home owners, the Aidan and Henrietta McGrath Partnership, denied Ms Monaghan was suspended for making protected disclosures.
Ms Monaghan made her “protected disclosure” on the standard of care at the home to Hiqa in five phone calls between March and May 2014.
The nursing home operator became aware that Ms Monaghan had made the calls when Hiqa visited the home in May 2014.
An unannounced inspection by Hiqa of the home in September 2014 detected a string of major non-compliance breaches.
The report records that the Hiqa “inspectors were very concerned that the provider was not ensuring that an adequate standard of evidence-based care was provided”.
The report also stated that Hiqa inspectors “were not satisfied that each resident’s wellbeing and welfare was maintained by a high standard of nursing care and found that there were significant concerns in the management of nutrition, wounds, falls and epilepsy”.
However, a Hiqa inspection this March found improvements in all aspects of care at the home and that “there was evidence of good practice in most areas of the service. Overall, the healthcare needs of residents were well met.”
‘Huge personal cost’
Solicitor for Ms Monaghan, Trevor Collins of Kilfeather & Co, said yesterday that Ms Monaghan acting as a whistleblower “has come at huge personal cost to her”.
Mr Collins said: “I don’t think Ms Monaghan’s experience would encourage other whistleblowers to come forward, but she can take some comfort from the fact that the lives of the residents have improved as a result of her contact with Hiqa.”
Mr Collins said that Ms Monaghan feels vindicated by the Labour Court outcome “but the award of €17,500 doesn’t compensate for the stress and trauma she has suffered”.
Ms Monaghan ceased working for the home in December 2014. Mr Collins confirmed that Ms Monaghan is bringing an unfair dismissal action against her former employer, due to be heard next week.
Efforts to make contact with the operators of the nursing home were yesterday unsuccessful.
