THE HEALTH Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) confirmed yesterday that the Notice of Proposal to Cancel and Refuse Registration has been lifted from the Village Nursing Care Centre at Craughwell in Co Galway as a result of actions taken at the home.
Inspectors had found that a number of residents at the care home were left waiting 12 minutes and more after calling for assistance from staff.
In the latest Hiqa report on the Village Nursing Care Centre, inspectors state that they “had a significant concern regarding the health and wellbeing of residents”.
The report reveals that earlier this year, Hiqa issued a notice of proposal to cancel the registration of the centre and a proposal to refuse its registration due to the history of persistent failings with the regulations and standards.
The report of the unannounced May 1st-2nd inspection found there continued to be a delay in responding to calls for assistance from residents using call bells.
The report states: “A number of calls took up to and over five minutes before they were answered. Some took up to and over nine minutes and three call bells took up to and over 12 minutes before staff responded.”
In response, the care centre carried out an audit of all call bell times, “until a trend of effective response times – under three minutes” could be demonstrated. The home states that since the introduction of this review “a significant reduction in ‘priority’ call bells has been identified”.
At the time of inspection, the centre provided a residential service to 41 residents with the HSE funding places for 12 of these residents who have significant physical and cognitive disabilities.
The centre did not return a call for comment yesterday. However, in its concluding comments in the Hiqa report, centre provider Dr Hussain Bhatti said “the Village Nursing Home and Care Centre is fully committed to providing the highest quality of care to our residents and using the authority’s standards to assist us”.
