Therese Lipsett's guilty plea and fine of €8,000 for breaking care rules at the Rostrevor nursing home in Rathgar, Dublin, marks a warning, perhaps, to other owners that low standards are not acceptable in elderly care.
Although this case, which ended in the Dublin District Court last Wednesday, had received a certain notoriety arising from the Health Service Executive's embarrassingly unsuccessful attempts to close the home in August 2004, there can be little doubt that other facilities around the State do not reach the highest standards.
The fiasco at Leas Cross in Swords, Co Dublin, and the failure so far to publish the report into the case of Peter McKenna, who died a fortnight after being transferred there, highlights again the issue of the quality of care provided to the most frail. Minister for Health Mary Harney promised yesterday the report on Mr Mckenna would be published. We shall see. Appropriate standards will only be ensured if the Government proceeds with its promise to put the Health Services Inspectorate on a statutory footing, including in its brief the stringent inspection of both public and private nursing homes. As has been said by Age Action Ireland, our elderly citizens have a right to the highest standards in what may be their last home.
With the pending statutory inspectorate there should be a continuation also by the Health Service Executive of its efforts to standardise inspection of private nursing homes. This has been interpreted and enforced for too long with varying and often insufficient rigour.
Old people and their families can take at least minimal comfort from some recent developments. Ms Harney is interested in a successful quality-care scheme promoted in 40 New York nursing homes. She is also investigating giving financial packages to families who care for their older relatives at home. There is, too, a gathering mood that looks actively beyond the provision of nursing home beds to revamped domiciliary and community services.
The Irish Health Services Accreditation Board has been co-ordinating a pilot project involving public and private nursing homes which aims to improve their standards. The Irish Health Promoting Hospitals Network and the National Council on Ageing and Older People are also supporting best practice by inviting residential facilities to examine their performance in the areas of consultation, residents' choice, communications, personal space, independence, lifestyle and friendliness. A demand for advocacy services in residential care is increasingly evident. But there are still many issues in latter-day care to be queried, not least the reliance on private enterprise to provide future nursing home beds.