Nursing home patients were treated ‘appallingly’

PATIENTS at a Cork nursing home were treated “in an appalling way” despite the fact it was owned by a doctor, the Dáil heard yesterday.

In December 2003, a Southern Health Board complaints officer warned that “ill old people should not be referred” to St Albert’s nursing home in Sunday’s Well.

She made the warning after investigating three complaints made about the nursing home, owned at the time by Dr Martin Moloney.

The SHB subsequently established an inquiry team, headed by a management consultant, to investigate more fully conditions at the home.

In its September 2004 report, the inquiry team found the home had breached numerous health and safety regulations.

Details of the report were read into the Dáil record yesterday by Fine Gael TD Fergus O’Dowd.

Mr O’Dowd stressed that ownership of St Albert’s changed in January 2006, and that the SHB investigation had nothing to do with the current proprietors.

However, while the home had been owned by Dr Moloney, serious breaches of standards had been discovered.

The SHB investigation found:

* There was insufficient nursing staff on duty.

* 22 of 29 patients examined were at risk of developing pressure sores.

* Clinical waste was not stored or disposed of in accordance with Department of Health policy.

* Clothes missing from one patient were being worn by others.

* A patient was transferred to hospital without her family’s knowledge.

* Hygiene standards in the kitchen were poor.

* There was a risk of rodent infestation because of accumulation of piping and debris in the laundry.

Mr O’Dowd raised the matter during a Dáil debate on the Health Bill 2006, which, if implemented, would establish a new inspection regime for nursing homes.

He said the St Albert’s report proved the Government knew as far back as 2004 that serious problems existed in the sector, and yet it was only now Health Minister Mary Harney was bringing forward relevant legislation to address them.

On the subject of St Albert’s specifically, he added: “In 2003, a health board official stated no sick person should be sent there, but people continued to be sent there and the minister did nothing about it.”

He accused Dr Moloney, meanwhile, of “betraying a basic and fundamental trust”.

When contacted last night, Dr Moloney declined to comment. However, Ms Harney rejected Mr O’Dowd’s claims that the Government had failed to act.

“Deputy O’Dowd quotes from that report as if it was some great discovery. It was the health board who were unhappy with what they had been hearing that asked for that management consultant to go in and make recommendations,” Ms Harney told RTÉ Radio.

“The health board, in fairness to them, acted very promptly and got that management consultant to do a report and on receiving that report, immediately implemented the findings.”

Ms Harney stressed that the home under its new ownership and is “operating now to the highest possible standards”.