Poor quality medical care for older people in nursing homes is an inevitable consequence of long-term neglect and administrative failures by the authorities.
It is part of a general malaise caused by a shortage of public beds and skilled medical personnel in our health services. And it is visibly reflected in the frequency of patients being treated on trolleys in accident and emergency wards as they await admission to acute hospital beds.
The RTÉ Prime Time television programme on Leas Cross private nursing home, in Swords, Co Dublin, performed an important service in the public interest. It is worth noting that a nursing home which sought a last-minute High Court injunction to prevent the screening of the programme on Monday night had agreed to the installation of a new management regime from the Health Service Executive 24 hours later. Prime Time alerted the public to an unacceptable abuse of our elder citizens. The Government did not seem to realise yesterday, however, that the absence of a rigorous and independent inspection system, with the power to impose heavy penalties on badly run nursing homes, is their responsibility.
Representatives of the Government and the HSE expressed shock and horror at the content of the RTÉ programme. They promised remedial action. They spoke of a Garda investigation. But even when the Taoiseach stood up in the Dáil yesterday, he was unable to promise the implementation of vitally needed legislation until some time next year.
Last year, the Government attempted to retain money taken illegally from nursing home patients by health boards. It was only prevented from doing so by the Supreme Court. This episode encapsulates the official attitude towards the rights and the dignity of older people in today's Ireland. While many nursing homes are well run, others have generated serious unease about the quality of patient care.
There are overlapping responsibilities in all of this. The families of nursing home patients must take an ongoing interest in their welfare. General practitioners attached to such establishments have a key role to play. And of course, the staff of the institutions must be properly trained and motivated. But unless complaints about inadequate medical treatment and inappropriate staff behaviour can be processed quickly and effectively, nothing will change.
Our population is ageing. The number of public nursing home beds has fallen. The Government has sought to entice the private sector into providing nursing home care through various incentives and tax breaks. Unfortunately, the HSE, which is dependent on the private sector to provide such facilities, is also the licensing and inspection authority. That will now change. And a new statutory agency will be given responsibility for inspecting public and private residential institutions. Official reports on nursing homes will be made available. Those are welcome developments.