Watchdog extends care home ban

A temporary ban on accepting new residents at a Cork nursing home has been extended following an inspection by the health watchdog.

When inspectors from the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) arrived at Rochestown Nursing Home, Monastery Rd, Cork, at 11am on October 17 last, they found it without electricity since 1pm the previous day on account of a power cut caused by extreme weather conditions.

The nursing home provider did not have a generator to maintain essential services and had not tried to source one by the time the unannounced inspection began. Inspectors said that during the power outage there was no heating in the centre and no lights “with the exception of tea lights and torches”. Residents had to use the bathroom and get dressed for bed with only the use of a torch. Call bells were not working and inspectors saw numerous fire doors “wedged open with wedges, blankets and other items as the hold-back mechanisms were not working”.