NURSING HOME CLOSURE:THE HEALTH Information and Quality Authority has obtained an interim court order to effectively shut down a private nursing home in south Dublin.
The Health Service Executive has taken charge of Rostrevor nursing home in Rathgar as a result of the court order and is trying to find alternative placements for the home’s 23 elderly residents.
The authority made an ex parte application to cancel the registration of the home at Dublin District Court on Friday but details of the order obtained only emerged yesterday. The home’s owners now have 28 days to file an objection to the granting of the interim order.
It is understood gardaí are also investigating issues in relation to the care of residents at the home.
It is the third time the health watchdog has closed a private nursing home since it took over independent inspections of all public and private nursing homes in mid-2009.
The authority would not say what issues in the home had caused it concern but stressed that under the Health Act 2007 it can go to court to apply to deregister a home if it believes there is a serious risk to residents.
Published inspection reports on the home show few concerns were raised during inspections by the authority in April and August 2010. However, issues are understood to have come to light since then.
Rostrevor has been in the news several times in recent years. In September 2005, the owner of the home, Therese Lipsett, was fined €8,000 after pleading guilty to 10 breaches in regulations.
The HSE (South Western Area) also unsuccessfully sought to close down the home in the High Court in 2004 when it said residents were at risk because of improper administration of drugs and staff shortages. No issues in relation to staff shortages were raised in 2010 inspection reports.
Ms Lipsett, a nurse who was listed as the registered provider of care in the home in inspection reports last year, was struck off the register last December, along with two other nurses who worked at the home. They were found guilty of professional misconduct in relation to a 2005 incident.
An Bord Altranais, the regulatory body for the nursing profession, found Ms Lipsett as proprietor of the home failed to respond or take appropriate action when allegations were made that staff nurse Stuart William Cummings engaged in inappropriate physical and or sexual contact with a resident. She failed to report the allegations to the HSE or the gardaí and allowed the nurse continue to work unsupervised, exposing other residents to risk. And after the nurse’s employment was terminated, she furnished references for him which were false or misleading.
Mr Cummings was also struck off, as was the home’s matron, Emelina Makinano Navale, for failing to document the allegations adequately or at all, to report them to the appropriate authorities, or take steps to ensure Mr Cummings did not work at the home pending an investigation.
David Walsh, Dublin Mid-Leinster area manager with the HSE, said the executive had to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the patients, assess the patients’ needs and then work to find alternative placements.
“At this stage we have put a team of people in place and we are working with the staff and management of the nursing home. I have to say they have been co-operating very well with that in difficult circumstances,” he said. He could not get into the nature of the concerns raised about the nursing home, he added. “It will be a shock to patients and relatives and we need to assess their needs and find the right placement for them. That’s in progress,” he said.
Ms Lipsett could not be contacted yesterday. Companies office records show the home is run by Kiltelm Ltd and its directors include Avila and Sarah Lipsett.
‘All I can think of is what are we going to do with him, and how is he going to react’
RELATIVES OF residents at Rostrevor nursing home said they were shocked when they heard it was to be closed on foot of a court order.
Yesterday, in the red-brick home on the corner of leafy Orwell Road and Zion Road, it was business as usual. Patients were being cared for, and relatives were coming and going to visit them. On the ground floor, a painter was redecorating the hall and outside a skip had been filled with black sacks and other rubbish.
A Churchtown woman visiting her husband, who has an acquired brain injury, said she got a call from the Health Information and Quality Authority at 9pm on Friday to tell her of the situation. She was not given reasons for the closure, and described the authority as “being like sergeant majors”.
“I was absolutely shocked,” she said. “I still haven’t got over the shock. All I can think of is what are we going to do with him and how is he going to react.”
She described Rostrevor as “home-like” with good food, and said her husband seemed to be well looked after and was happy. “You couldn’t get a nicer staff, they are very friendly,” she said.
She had no real complaints, except that her husband “did get out a couple of times. We sorted that out anyway and it has never happened again.”
She said if you raised concerns, staff dealt with it. “But you see that’s daytime; you don’t know what goes on at night in nursing homes.”
She said she was trying to find out where they would send her husband. “I’d be happier if it was one I approved of; you can’t just throw them in any old place.”
Another woman whose friend was a resident there described the care as excellent and said the closure was “dreadful”.
“I’m coming every week for 13 months and there were no problems; excellent staff and all very nice,” she said.
Another woman whose mother only recently got a place at the home said she had been very happy: “We spent a long time finding a place for my mum; I’m not sure what will happen now.”
A woman whose brother has been two years there said she found it very good. "We've been very pleased with it," she said.
FIONA GARTLAND