373 alerts of alleged abuse in elder care

There were 373 alerts over alleged or confirmed abuse of residents in long term care homes for the elderly to the inspections watchdog, last year, a report reveals.

The first annual overview report by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) into designated centres for older people also revealed that it received 171 alerts over the unexplained absence of a resident from a centre, and 293 alerts regarding the outbreak of an infectious disease.

Hiqa was also notified about alleged misconduct by staff on 95 occasions last year, involving 59 different centres.

Age Action said it was concerned by some of the findings, including that Hiqa received 4,246 notifications of serious injury to nursing home residents during 2013, while Alone said the findings were “shocking”.

The report also found that health and safety and risk management was an area of concern, with one-fifth of all inspections leading to an ‘action required’.

Health and social care needs, and safe and suitable premises, were also areas that required a higher number of actions on foot of the inspections, while Hiqa also raised issues over suitable staffing in some centres, including issues such as nutrition and falls and wound management.

Hiqa said it received 355 items of unsolicited information on 213 designated centres for older people last year, with 59% of the information passe on by relatives of residents, 14% of the alerts came from nursing home staff, and 13% were anonymous tip-offs.

In the foreword to the report, chief inspector Phelim Quinn said the first such overview of designated centres had highlighted many examples of good practice, adding there were signs that centres were “continually improving the care provided to residents in the areas of food and nutrition and end-of-life care”.

He said there were “two key areas of note,” namely health and safety and risk management, and medicines management. He said, in relation to fire safety precautions, 27% of actions highlighted deficits in areas such as fire drills and practices.

Age Action spokesman Eamon Timmins said: “The report not only highlights the great need which exists for an independent inspection authority, but also the need for nursing home management across Ireland to improve their service when it comes to issues of health and safety and risk management.”

There are 566 designated centres for older people on the registers, 75% privately-operated nursing homes. The remainder are HSE-operated centres (20%) and centres operated by bodies in receipt of HSE funding (5%).

In all, Hiqa received 5,362 notifications last year.

Nursing Homes Ireland said providers were constant in notifying Hiqa of incidents and risks in their day-to-day operations in what it said was a “robustly regulated” sector.

Kathleen Lynch, minister for older people, said: “While the vast majority of service providers follow best practice and are in compliance with regulations and quality standards, there is no room for complacency.”

Key findings

- 814 inspections of 565 centres, 78% of which were unannounced.

- 697 inspection reports published.

- Three centres received five inspections and nine were inspected four times.

- 184 notifications in 126 centres of the death of a resident under the age of 70.

- 293 notifications in 198 of an outbreak of an infectious disease.

- 4,246 notifications in 525 centres of a serious injury to a resident.

- 171 alerts of a unexplained absence of a resident in 99 centres.

- 373 alerts of alleged or confirmed abuse of a resident in 195 centres.

- 95 alerts of alleged misconduct by staff in 59 centres.

Read the full report here.