Nursing home acts on criticism of staffing levels

A NURSING home in Co Clare has employed additional staff after independent health watchdog inspectors expressed concern over staffing levels at the home.

Frances Neilan, director of nursing services at Carrigoran Nursing Home, Newmarket-on-Fergus, said yesterday that since the recommendations of the Health Information Quality Authority (HIQA) report, the home has employed an additional four healthcare assistants.

Ms Neilan said that the new posts came at “at a substantial cost” to Carrigoran, which provides care to 115 residents.

The HIQA report on Carrigoran stated that “staff levels continued to be of concern and they were insufficient during the evening and night shifts” to provide assistance to residents in the nearby independent living units if needed.

“Some staff did not respect the privacy and dignity of residents during personal-care giving,” the report continued.

“Inspectors also found that daily nursing notes did not reflect the residents’ current condition and residents’ sleep was disturbed with the noise created from a laundry trolley.”

Referring to a previous report, the HIQA inspector reported that “inspectors found that the provider had completed many of the actions identified in the previous inspection report”.

The report continued: “However, the substantial issue of the staffing levels, skill-mix and the organisation of staff continued to be a concern.”

On a note related to poor staffing levels, the report said “inspectors were seriously concerned with the high number of unwitnessed accidents and found that these related to inadequate supervision of residents during some parts of the day and at night time”.