Almost one in three disability centres failed to ensure that residents were adequately safeguarded last year, it has emerged.

Risks remain in children's services due to staffing shortages, ineffective governance and management and a lack of regulation, the Health Information and Quality Authority has warned.

Disputes between the HSE and Hiqa over whether two care homes met acceptable standards contributed to the health watchdog’s €128,024 bill for legal proceedings in 2017.

Serious shortcomings in governance and safeguarding continue to put at risk adults and children in residential care, the State’s health services watchdog has warned.

The chairman of Hiqa has confirmed he was asked by a nursing home operator to stop an inspection report from appearing on the health watchdog’s website.

The State’s health services watchdog had to stop some private nursing homes from charging residents additional fees to keep their facilities up to standard, a Dáil committee was told.

Through inspections and interactions with residents and service providers, Hiqa is assured regulation is improving the lives of people with disabilities living under State care, writes Mary Dunnion.

All health and social care services, including home care, respite care, day care, and hospice care, should be regulated, and not just residential services, the health watchdog has said.

Health watchdog Hiqa has warned of the potential of “new hidden populations” who could be vulnerable to abuse, including the homeless, migrants and those in direct provision.

The number of allegations of suspected or confirmed abuse of older people in nursing homes jumped by almost 20% last year.

The State health watchdog has refused to say every maternity hospital in the country is safe.

The Health Information and Quality Authority says the cleanliness of equipment in the country’s hospitals is a common problem.

THE multi-million-euro emergency department at Mercy University Hospital (MUH) which remained idle for almost two years, will finally be opened next week on a phased basis.

A NEW nurse education centre costing €5.3 million is to open at Mercy University Hospital in Cork.

NURSES hit back at the Health Minster Mary Harney yesterday after she accused them of holding the Government to ransom in a staffing row which has seen a €5 million emergency department lie idle for more than a year.

IRISH hospitals are failing to properly integrate foreign nurses into the health care system, new research has found.