Nursing home left the heating off

A LEADING private nursing home has been criticised for failing to ensure there is adequate heating for vulnerable elderly residents, forcing some to wear blankets because radiators are “cold to the touch”.

A series of announced and unannounced Health Information Quality Authority (HIQA) reports on the Powdermill Nursing Home, Ballincollig, Co Cork, has raised concerns over the temperature of the facility.

While generally giving the nursing home, situated on Gunpowder Mill, a clean bill of health, inspectors said heating was an issue.

According to the latest report, which relates to October 20 and was published on hiqa.ie yesterday, an inspection team found there were not “appropriate and suitable” heating arrangements.

In particular, the team said it had been contacted the previous day “by a person expressing concern that... visitors had cut short their visit to a resident” because of the heating issue.

Inspectors found “there was no heating on in the centre”. They also checked a number of rooms at random, finding that radiators “were cold to the touch”.

Two residents were in a nearby day-room and “had blankets pulled over them”.

Despite the inspectors being aware that a key member of staff was told of the heating issue the previous day, she could not provide “a satisfactory explanation” as to why the issue was repeated the next day.

The team emphasised the need for those in charge to ensure the temperature was maintained at the required levels under the 2009 document Standards for Residential Care Settings for Older People in Ireland.

As a result of the move, the nursing home’s management team has confirmed that all nurses, care assistants and other workers will get in-house training on the impact of such conditions.

In particular, it will focus on the effect on vulnerable older people “who may have limited movement or are sitting in their rooms or bed”.

A temperature display unit has also been placed in the dining room in the west wing and in the library/day-room on the east wing to ensure all staff monitor temperatures continually.

* Further details of the report, and all other published nursing home inspection team reports, can be found at www.hiqa.ie.

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