Care home slated by Hiqa

Management of a home for intellectually disabled people where everyone used one resident’s private property, including a TV, three-piece suite and garden furniture, have been heavily criticised for not providing such basic items themselves.

St Anne’s residential service in Roscrea, run by the Daughters of Charity Disability Support Services Ltd, was also criticised in relation to a car purchased by the same resident for her own use which another resident was also travelling in.

The car owner was insuring, taxing and servicing the car with no evidence that St Anne’s service was contributing. In addition, the other resident was charged for the petrol as a contribution to the trip with no sign of an agreement covering this arrangement, according to inspectors from the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) who carried out an unannounced inspection of the centre in June.

Yesterday a s Daughters of Charity Services spokesperson said they reimbursed the resident whose furniture was used communally in the region of €3,000 and an investigation is underway into the use of her car.

There were other major criticisms, including that the centre was failing to support residents, mainly elderly, to manage their finances, that there was a “high level of non-compliance” with regulations and “significant deficits in care”.

Hiqa said they were unhappy that the nurse in charge was also responsible for a number of other centres. According to Hiqa, this nurse “did not demonstrate an awareness of the conditions of a court order relevant to the healthcare provided for a resident”. Hiqa also said the arrangements in place in relation to protecting residents’ rights were not satisfactory, particularly in relation to financial affairs with some residents’ bank accounts showing evidence of withdrawals for which no explanation was provided.

The service has said its finance director is leading a probe of its finances and review of the systems in place .