Nurse remained on duty despite abuse claims

A NURSE against whom three allegations of abuse had been made remained on duty in a nursing home run by the Health Service Executive (HSE) until two further incidents of alleged abuse had taken place.

The decision not to place the nurse on immediate administrative leave or to investigate the allegations in a timely manner is criticised by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) in a report of St Joseph’s Community Nursing Unit in Trim, Co Meath. HIQA has reported the nurse to An Bord Altranais, the nursing regulatory body.

The nursing home was also criticised for the practice of wheeling the bodies of deceased residents through the home on a mortuary trolley.

In addition, HIQA found inadequate staff numbers at night to evacuate the 147 residents in the event of fire; failure to investigate complaints; insufficient numbers of toilets; routine administration of laxatives; and no formal on-call arrangements at night.

The report, published yesterday, found:

* The person in charge of running the home failed to investigate the abuse allegations in accordance with HSE policy.

* Relatives had not been told and the only persons interviewed were the person making the claim and the staff member named.

* No immediate protection measures for residents had been introduced.

The report found “serious shortcomings” in the way abuse allegations were handled.

On foot of the inspection findings, HSE local area health manager David Gaskin was tasked with submitting an immediate action plan. However HIQA said the plan was not satisfactory in terms of protection of residents from abuse in that the nurse in question remained on duty until two further allegations of abuse were made. HIQA was not notified about these additional allegations as per the regulations.

In response to HIQA’s findings, Mr Gaskin said staff had taken all allegations of abuse seriously and the inspectors’ concerns had been “immediately taken on board and rectified”.