Residents in one nursing home faced delays in being assisted to go to the toilet, inspectors from the State’s health services watchdog found.
In another nursing home there were concerns that residents’ dietary needs were not being met.
In a third home inspectors found that residents did not have unrestricted access to their funds outside of standard working hours.
In the latest batch of inspection reports published by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa), the regulator said it had found six centres, inspected in recent months to be non-compliant with four or more regulations.
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Hiqa published 47 reports on residential centres for older people, some run by private sector companies and others operated by the HSE.
On these inspections, noncompliance was identified in areas including residents’ rights, protection, managing behaviour that is challenging, individual assessment and care plans, and procedures around management of complaints.
At Beechfield Manor Nursing Home in Shankill, Co Dublin, which is registered to provide accommodation for up to 69 residents, Hiqa inspectors said they had observed incidents where enhanced staff supervision was required.
“Some examples were observed where there were sufficient staff available to attend to residents’ who required the toilet; however, there were not timely responses to support residents’ needs, as residents’ were asked to wait for assistance to go to the toilet,” the inspection report stated.
In the morning staff were asked to “facilitate activities” in one sittingroom but this did not happen and one staff member was “observed to read a newspaper while the residents sat in silence”.
“Only after being prompted by a resident, staff turned the television on for them,” the report states.
At the Knockeen Nursing Home, Co Wexford – a building with 49 single en suite bedrooms – inspectors said while they had observed kind and compassionate staff treating residents with dignity and respect, “enhanced governance and oversight were required to improve the quality and safety of service provision”.
Arrangements concerning food and nutrition were found to be ineffective, inspectors said.
“After speaking to catering staff and reviewing written documentation to guide catering and care staff in relation to residents’ dietary needs, the inspector was not assured that the dietary needs of the residents were safely, effectively and accurately met,” the report states.
Inspectors also found that records of mandatory staff training “demonstrated significant gaps”, including on fire safety as well as training regarding safeguarding vulnerable adults from abuse and on managing behaviour that is challenging.
At St Camillus Community Nursing Unit in Limerick, which is run by the HSE, Hiqa inspectors found while residents were complimentary of the quality of care they received, their civil rights “were not consistently upheld”.
“Residents who were dependent on the registered provider for support and assistance to manage their finances lacked unrestricted access to their funds outside of standard working hours of staff and information about their accounts,” the report states.
Inspectors found some residents were worried about whether they had sufficient funds to cover day-to-day expenses.
