A NURSING home in the midlands is to remain closed following a District Court judgment which found the owner unfit to run it.
Judge Gerard Haughton said Maureen Flanagan had given evidence that was untrue, contained omissions and was designed to mislead the court as she fought to have the a temporary de-registration order lifted on Upton House, Clara, Offaly.
At Tullamore District Court yesterday, Judge Haughton read a lengthy judgment which was highly critical of Ms Flanagan (72) and her management of the home.
He said there had been a risk to the life of a male resident when an ambulance was not immediately called when he fell from his bed. The man had a history of bleeding to the brain, had been unsteady and had headaches in the week leading up to the fall and was incoherent when spoken to by a nurse.
The judge said Ms Flanagan’s evidence that she had no responsibility for the man while they waited for the doctor, who did not arrive until lunchtime, showed an unacceptable attitude. The nursing home was always responsible, he said.
He wondered how many times a resident must fall to be considered at risk of falling if a 95-year-old frail woman, who used a zimmerframe but who had fallen three times, was considered not to be at risk. The woman had sustained a fracture when she fell from her bed a second time on one evening.
Hiqa, the Health Information and Quality Authority, should have been informed of both patients’ falls, but only became aware during an inspection, the judge added.
He outlined Ms Flanagan’s failures to implement changes required following inspection reports, a failure to keep records that would inform all staff about a resident’s condition and a failure to instigate independent investigations into complaints of abuse, such as rough handling, against herself and other staff.
The tone and content of a letter Ms Flanagan wrote to a resident, advising her to leave within a week after her sister made a formal complaint to the health authority, was “inappropriate, abusive and unacceptable” from a carer, he said.
He described as grievous, contemptible and utterly without foundation a series of allegations Ms Flanagan made about Hiqa and the Health Service Executive and their officers.
Allegations by the nursing-home owner, that an affidavit by Dr Marion Whitten contained untruths and omissions and was designed to mislead the court, reflected her own evidence, not that of the doctor, he said.
The affidavit from Dr Whitten, chief inspector of nursing homes at Hiqa, had been read at a previous court hearing in October, at which Judge Haughton granted an interim order to close the nursing home. He confirmed that order yesterday.
Thirteen residents were moved to alternative accommodation at that time after Hiqa told the court of breaches and failures which were a risk to the residents.