Team to be put in place to safeguard against mistreatment

A NATIONWIDE team of elder abuse officers is to be in place by the end of the year to help safeguard against the kind of mistreatment patients at Leas Cross suffered.

Just six of the 32 specialist officers have been appointed so far but Aidan Browne of the Health Service Executive (HSE) said yesterday the remainder would be in situ by the end of next month.

However, responses to many of the concerns raised by Prof O’Neill’s report on the Leas Cross scandal remain a work in progress despite the fact that he submitted his report and 12 key recommendations to the HSE last April.

Prof O’Neill calls for national minimum levels of staffing and patient-staff ratios to be set down and says at least half of all nursing staff in nursing homes, and all directors of nursing in charge of nursing homes, should have specialist qualifications in care of the elderly.

The HSE says in response that it is proposing to set up a number of pilot sites to examine how minimum levels of staff would be assessed and applied. It says the recommendation “while highly desirable, would be difficult to action over the short term”.

Prof O’Neill says a computerised data base should be set up to hold patient records and care plans, and to record illness and death rates for national statistics.

The HSE says it supports the concept but it is a “complex and challenging area” and while work has begun on establishing a common method of collecting and recording data, it doesn’t give a deadline on when the work will be complete.

According to Prof O’Neill’s report, funding arrangements for nursing home care should be urgently reviewed by the Department of Health. The HSE responds that funding for high dependency beds has increased significantly but while multi-disciplinary teams have been introduced in some nursing homes in Dublin, it has to look at the figures in more depth before extending this model countrywide.

While the extension of the powers of the Social Services Inspectorate to nursing homes is pending, Prof O’Neill says nursing home inspection teams need to be developed in the meantime and a system set up where all written queries and concerns receive a rapid response.

The HSE responds that many of the HSE areas are in the process of setting up full-time dedicated inspection teams.

It says that the Department of Health has indicated that new legislation to extend the remit and powers of the Social Services Inspectorate to the nursing home sector will be published shortly.