Inspectors have expressed concern about staffing levels and how the health and social care needs of residents at a Co Galway nursing home have been handled.
The Health Information and Quality Authority have published two reports on Áras Cois Fharraige, a 42-bed centre near Spiddal, which also note concerns about complaints procedures, the nutritional needs of residents not being well met and the privacy afforded to residents in shared rooms being unsatisfactory.
The second report, from September, notes that the provider - the Aidan & Henrietta McGrath Partnership - had not completed actions recommended following earlier inspections within the agreed timeframes. Previously agreed improvements which had been commenced had not been sustained, it says.
The first report, dated June 30th, identified issues with matters such as the amount of time some residents spent in bed.
Hiqa says spending prolonged periods in bed was not a feature of care plans as “an identified need or choice of the residents” and that doing so impacted on the ability of residents to make healthy living choices.
“While the inspection took place on a lovely sunny summer day, the inspectors found that a third of the residents were in bed shortly after lunch and over half had gone to bed for the night by 18:30 in the evening,” it states.
The June report, which followed a tip-off to Hiqa, says staff had confirmed some of the residents who went to bed after lunch “were not assisted to get up again until the following morning”.
The report says the provider explained that many residents had been outdoors on the morning of the inspection and provided evidence of outdoor activity which took place on fine days. “However, there was no plan to engage in outdoor activity on the day of inspection, even though the weather was suitable.”
The June report says “sufficient staff levels with the appropriate skill mix” were not consistently rostered over the course of the day to ensure the needs of residents were met.
“There was one nurse on duty in the afternoon and evening who had responsibility for the nursing care of the 40 residents in the centre, many of whom were highly dependent..,” it says. “This nurse also had responsibility for the overall supervision of care staff while deputising for the person in charge.”
The September report notes improvement in the hours worked by the person in charge but says deficits remained in areas such as supervision. It says the provider has extended an offer of employment to a new person in charge.
It also says governance and management systems at the nursing home “were not fully effective in ensuring that the service provided was safe, appropriate, consistent and adequately monitored”.
This, Hiqa says, resulted in “poor outcomes for residents in healthcare, risk of falls, medication administration, nutrition, supervision by staff”.
