Transfer delay for care home patients

A HSE care home, where three residents went missing unnoticed by staff and where care was described as “institutionalised and medically focused”, will not now meet a commitment to transfer patients to the community this year due to lack of funds.

The Cluain Fhionnáin centre in Co Kerry was due to transfer patients to supported living in the community this year, as per national policy, but health watchdog inspectors have been told by the HSE the units will not now close before March 2017 because of insufficient funds.

The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) which has inspected the centre six times, most recently last August, found “an unreasonable level of restrictions on residents” including locked bedroom doors in a secure unit but, conversely, there was “also evidence of inadequate controls with three instances where residents had left the centre and had not been noted to be missing by staff”.