Nursing home fails to address issues three months after HIQA inspection

A NURSING home where 23 issues were discovered by inspectors on issues such as medicine administration and fire safety, still had not fully rectified 22 of those issues three months later.

The Maryfield Nursing Home in Farnablake, Athenry in Co Galway is the subject of the report by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) which highlighted failings it said needed to be addressed.

A voluntary centre run by the West of Ireland Alzheimer’s Foundation, Maryfield provides long-term and respite care for those with dementia and Alzheimer’s and at the time of the inspection all 22 spaces were occupied.

The unannounced follow-up inspection took place on May 18. HIQA had visited the facility at the start of February and highlighted areas that needed improvement.

Among the failings detailed in the report:

* The medication management policy at Maryfield was out of date, some medication prescriptions were not dated by the GP and there was no maximum dosage recorded for some as required medicines and no specific times prescribed for the administration of some medications.

n Correction fluid had been used on some prescribing charts and some medications were not administered at the times prescribed.

nA new member of staff had not read the medication policy, telling inspectors she had not had time to read it.

* There was no written confirmation from a competent person stating that all the requirements of the statutory fire authority had been complied with.

* There were no comprehensive nursing assessments to inform the care plans and some risk assessments were not up to date, with inaccurate records kept.

* There was insufficient toilets, wash basins and showers, with one bathroom used to accommodate an arm chair, cleaning trolley and other items.

According to the report: “Inspectors were not satisfied that the required actions from the registration inspection of February 1 and 2, 2011 had been addressed satisfactorily. There were 23 actions arising from the previous report and inspectors confirmed that while many were partially completed only one had been fully completed.

“On the day of inspection, inspectors again had serious concerns regarding medication management and fire safety training. Because of the risks to resident safety they issued an immediate action plan requiring the provider to immediately address these issues”.