Damning reports on nursing home care

INADEQUATE care of residents and insufficient knowledge about sores and wounds were uncovered at one nursing home in the latest batch of published inspection reports.

The damning report on Creevelea Nursing Home, Laytown, Co Meath, also found one radiator’s temperature was 89C, leaving patients at risk of burns and scalding. A trawl through reports on homes from the final counties inspected, by the Irish Examiner, uncovers a range of concerns about care breaches.

The inspections in Cavan, Laois, Leitrim, Louth, Meath, and Monaghan only became available on the Health Service Executive’s website in recent weeks.

In Creevelea nursing home, inspectors found staff had “insufficient knowledge” about assessing residents at risk of pressure sores, as well as the management of incontinent patients at the 45-person facility.

An assessment of one resident’s leg ulcer was “incomplete” and an “unsuitable” cleaning agent was being used on the wound. The wound was also not examined by a doctor.

Nursing files were also unsigned at Creevelea and contracts of care for dependent persons were incomplete.

There was no bedpan washer or sluice room at the home. Washed floors were left wet giving rise to the risk of falls. In one room, the surface temperature of a radiator was 89C, 46C more than the recommended, safe level. In five separate rooms there was a “strong smell of urine”. At least 23 breaches were recorded during the check in November.

Inspectors found a host of failings at facilities in Cavan. Despite one resident at College View Nursing Home being at a “very high risk” of pressure sores, an assessment chart did not begin until a week after the patient’s admission. Another resident after hospital treatment for a sore on his buttocks had no chart check until six days after re-entering the home.

At Fairlawns Nursing Home, Bailieboro, a substantial number of commodes were found lying in a corridor awaiting cleaning and disinfection. There were no liquid soap or hand towels in bedrooms for staff to wash their hands between handling patients, therefore increasing the risk of cross- infection. Some 26 breaches of care were noted during inspection last December.

At Dealgan House Nursing Home, Dundalk, Co Louth, nursing care plans failed to address the care needs of MRSA-infected patients. The home was warned about leaving medication unattended in a dependent resident’s room. Inspectors also found a hole in the wall in one room, as well two rusted hospital beds during the check in December.

In Sunhill Nursing Home, Termonfeckin, Co Louth, inspectors found overloaded skips at the rear of the facility, posing an “attraction” for rodents.

In Meath, damning conditions were exposed at Delvin Lodge Nursing Home in Gormanstown. Two elderly residents were found unkempt and unclean. Another “frail and emaciated” female patient suffering dementia had not been weighed in months, when the home was checked last November.

Stale food residues were found in a fridge, as well as dirty and stained carpets and cobwebs in many rooms.

The proprietors at Delvin Lodge were issued a fine for previous poor conditions, last year. A more recent inspection there though found many of the issues around the near 60 breaches of care, were being tackled.