Nursing home revelations 'extremely distressing' and 'unacceptable', Minister says
Vivienne Clarke
The treatment of residents at nursing homes featured in a documentary was “extremely distressing” and “wholly unacceptable”, the Minister for Older People has said.
It comes after RTÉ Investigates examined standards of care at two nursing homes operated by Emeis Ireland, formerly known as Orpea.
The programme highlighted serious issues at The Residence Portlaoise and Beneavin Manor nursing homes, which have been acknowledged as “wholly unjustifiable” by Emeis Ireland.
The documentary highlighted vulnerable people being left unsupervised, large amounts of residents congregated together being supervised by one member of staff, and requests for the use of toilets being unanswered for lengthy periods of time.
It also showed some staff not using proper hoisting equipment and shortages in necessary items like incontinence pads.
Emeis Ireland issued an apology to to all residents and their families for “the suffering and distress experienced as a result of failures identified in the care provided”.
It said it recognised and deeply regrets the “breach of trust” and “any failure to uphold the dignity of some residents at all times”.
Emeis Ireland said it has commenced a comprehensive review across both nursing homes.
The Minister for Older People, Kieran O’Donnell, said he met with Hiqa on Wednesday because of the “urgency” of the situation exposed in the “extremely distressing” RTÉ programme.
“The programme was extremely distressing. I can only imagine what it is for the residents themselves of the two nursing homes, their families and people looking in who have cared ones in nursing homes the length and breadth of Ireland and really what happened was shown to be wholly unacceptable,” he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
“I do want the message to go out as well. We have very good nursing homes operating in Ireland. There are very good providers, great staff, but what happened and was shown in the programme last night, I want to compliment RTÉ for broadcasting the programme, it highlights neglect, abuse of older people, which in my role as Minister for Older People, is wholly unacceptable.
“When I met Hiqa, I impressed upon them the need to redouble their efforts around these two nursing homes and I note that they are doing an intensive body of work and I expect Hiqa and the Chief Inspector to use all their available powers in this area.
"We have to have environments that are safe for older people and that's something that I feel is absolutely critical. Furthermore I've asked Hiqa to come back to me on the work they're doing in terms of the intensive engagement with the two nursing homes over the next week.
"I've asked them to do an overview of the Emeis group itself in terms of all the nursing homes, in terms of the regulation and enforcement process.”
The Minister said that of the nursing homes audited by Hiqa every year “some three or four times” there was 87 per cent compliance. What had been revealed in the RTÉ programme was “ a wakeup call for everyone”
“I'm bringing forward a statutory home care scheme on the other side and we're going to regulate, the first thing I'm doing is to regulate home care providers and bring forward that legislation.”
Mr O’Donnell pointed out that in the Programme for Government there was a commitment to provide more public nursing home beds. “That’s something that I am very committed to. But there will always be public and private (nursing homes), so it is about regulation.”
The Minister said he wanted to see inspections happening more frequently and faster responses to protective disclosures. “What I want to see now is a redoubling of efforts by Hiqa to deal with these two nursing homes. And ultimately it's absolutely critical that older people can live in a safe environment.”
Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke expressed his distress at the revelations in the RTÉ investigation.
“It was very distressing to see vulnerable people to be treated the way they were. When you consider elderly people who have given so much for our economy, for our state, to be treated like that in their twilight years was absolutely reprehensible,” he told RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne show.
Mr Burke said Hiqa had the regulatory framework and the power to close down a nursing home.
“We need to see exactly now what has happened. Irrespective of where the people go, the State has to respond to that. If people are not being cared for appropriately, with dignity, with respect, in an institution, well then that institution should not be operating.
“Hiqa need to really enforce that and to ensure that everyone has a basic level of dignity and care that they deserve in their twilight years. We need to get to the bottom of the facts with Hiqa.”
Earlier, the chairperson of Safeguarding Ireland, Patricia Rickard-Clarke, repeated a call on the Government to establish an interdepartmental interagency working group to implement the recommendations of the Law Reform Commission’s report from April 2024, which set out the policy changes that needed to be made to implement safeguarding legislation.
“I am very disturbed and very distressed and very, very angry about this,” she told Morning Ireland. “We're 20 years after Leas Cross. We have gone backwards, I think.”
While Leas Cross had been closed down advances had not been made in terms of what to do or what we should be doing, she said.
“There are questions to be answered by Hiqa. I would say, though, that in relation to Hiqa, one of the limitations it has is that it doesn't have the function of taking individual complaints or concerns. It looks at systemic issues, and it goes in on an irregular basis, and also, there was a delay in responding to a particular request [by a whistleblower].”
“That's just not acceptable. It's not acceptable even if there's one person being abused; that is a serious incident that should be followed up immediately.”
The implementation of the recommendations about safeguarding would provide a legal framework, she said.
“At the moment, we're working to a HSE limited policy, which is run by the HSE by safeguarding and protection teams, but it is limited to healthcare issues.
“There are much wider issues in safeguarding, and again, there are offences that should be implemented straight away. The Law Reform Commission sets out a number of offences that straight away could be enacted under criminal law.
"This is the Department of Justice responsibility. So, an offence of intentional or reckless abuse and neglect or ill treatment, an offence for exposure to serious harm, an offence of endangerment. The criminal law it's all set out in the 2024 Bill.
“We need what Safeguarding Ireland has recommended, which is the establishment of an independent adult safeguarding authority which will have functions and roles in relation to adult safeguarding to protect people from abuse. It would have the function of receiving reports of suspected abuse or actual abuse, and it would have the statutory function of responding to those abuses."
Meanwhile, the chief executive of The Alliance, a trade association for the nursing home sector in Ireland, Shane Scanlan, said he was “utterly shocked and appalled” by the RTÉ exposé.
“As a nurse myself and the director of nursing for over 10 years, you just really feel for the residents and families that have been affected by this,” he told Newstalk radio.
Mr Scanlon paid tribute to nurse Claire Doyle who was the “whistleblower” who approached RTÉ and made protected disclosures.
“The real question is, what if she never went to RTÉ with those protective disclosures, that she met and her students met, still went into Hiqa months before that? And it's a very brave thing she did, because it's not easy to pick up the phone or put something in writing and whistle blow.
"And in her own words, she said, ‘from my point of view, within the system, I cannot blow the whistle any louder. No one is listening.’ So, fair play to her in fairness. She's really called out what's happened here.”
The effectiveness of Hiqa had to be questioned, he added. Hiqa had been set up in the wake of the Leas Cross nursing home controversy to prevent such abuse from happening again.
“It's clear to us that they have failed to deliver on what they were set up to do. And there will be calls for further powers to be given to Hiqa, the Office of the Chief Inspector of Social Services, and that's not the answer here.
“I'd be calling for an immediate, independent, root and branch review of how Hiqa carries out their inspections and their methodology. Because inspectors clearly need to spend more time observing care, speaking with staff, speaking to residents.
"There's a huge amount of agency staff that's currently being used by Hiqa. Last year alone, they spent €1.89 million on agency staff. And you'd be wondering, what are agency staff doing within that organisation?
"As I've said, a full review of the current leadership of Hiqa and its effectiveness needs to happen. And off the back of this scandal, you have the question, should there be some resignations here at the senior level?”
