THE CONTENT of the sworn affidavit provided by the chief executive of the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa), Dr Tracey Cooper, to the High Court last Friday in a bid to close the Rostrevor nursing home in Rathgar, Dublin, is utterly shameful. In a State inured to any more shocks, it is horrifying that elderly people, many reported to be “cognitively impaired to some degree”, should have been abused in the manner set out before the court.
The allegations of horrific physical and verbal abuse of residents, including banging the head of one against a door jamb and trying to find an excuse for his family; kicking another a number of times while he was on the ground; and taking an old lady to the bathroom where she was heard screaming, should make us stand back, in these difficult, broke and challenging days, and ask the fundamental question: is this our new Ireland?
So many of our nursing and caring staff today come from outside Ireland. They are pillars of our medical and healthcare system. It is notable, in this instance, that three foreign workers took very high risks, which could led to the loss of their livelihoods, to reveal these abuses.
These developments reveal the vulnerability of elderly people and the critical role that whistleblowers can play in raising the alarm. Care of the elderly is not a peripheral issue. It goes to the very heart of the values that fashion our society.
Treatment of the elderly in nursing homes has become an increasingly fraught issue as life expectancy increases, the cost of medical treatment grows and allegations of patient abuse emerge. The past decades witnessed systematic theft from these vulnerable people by successive governments and health service officials in their attempts to reduce costs. Then, the so-called “Fair Deal” system of nursing home subventions was introduced by the last government based on a claw-back of costs from a sale of the family home. That scheme is now under-funded and in crisis.
The Fine Gael/Labour Party programme for government promised a review of the “Fair Deal” system. But, apart from a commitment to encourage people to stay in their own homes through the provision of home care and community packages, it is short on specifics. Care of the elderly has been identified as a priority and additional funding has been promised for community and residential care. But that will have little effect if the HSE continues to transfer resources for elderly care to other parts of the health system.
Less than 5 per cent of the population will ever enter a nursing home. The great majority of those will have experienced stroke or dementia and be incapable of living independently in the community. But why should they be treated differently from citizens who require healthcare for cancer or heart disease?
This Government is committed to the introduction of a universal, single-tier health service. It is based on the concept of social solidarity and a system of universal health insurance.
The Rostrevor experience must be unacceptable.