Nursing home criticises report
Woodlock Nursing Home in Portlaw, which catered for 32 people, was shut following proceedings taken by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA).
A 55-page report released by HIQA yesterday outlined the persistent failure of registered provider Timothy Kelliher to bring the home up the standards required.
Some of the areas where the authority said improvements needed to be made included:
* Residents’ access to medication.
* Monitoring of residents’ health, food and fluid intake, and wound care.
* Fire safety and evidence of compliance with the requirements of the statutory fire authority.
* Care of residents with cognitive impairment and dementia or challenging behaviour.
* Inappropriate management of residents’ finances.
Following information received, inspectors confirmed the provider withheld significant amounts of money paid as refunds for fees to residents from the Department of Social Protection.
Inspectors also witnessed a resident being physically brought to the floor by two staff in a restraint manner for non-compliance. The report noted there did not seem to be any rationale for the occurrence nor evidence the incident was reported to the resident’s family.
Last night, Woodlock Residential Care Ltd issued a statement in which it said it “strongly refutes many of the implications in the HIQA report”.
“Whereas the home had many shortcomings and drawbacks due to being in a 150-year-old building and limited resources due to its small number of beds, many of the items in the report were presented out of context and represented isolated incidents which were non-recurring or were dealt with by management once highlighted.”
It said the “provider and the person in charge were subjected to extreme and continuous pressure by the inspectors who kept making repeat visits and adequate opportunities or time between visits was not afforded to complete the action plan from the previous visit, thereby impeding progress and planned improvement to the service”.
