Hiqa harshly criticised for failures at nursing homes during pandemic

TD Fergus O'Dowd referenced the 23 residents who died at Dealgan House Nursing Home in Dundalk, Co Louth.

The health watchdog was harshly criticised for not enforcing standards at nursing homes during an Oireachtas hearing on Covid-19.

Cork South-West TD Michael Collins hit out at Hiqa for not enforcing standards at some facilities, where he said there were "very serious issues".

He questioned Hiqa on one specific facility, which he did not name, and said the health watchdog had previously identified issues there, including the number of people being housed in one room with limited toilet or washing facilities.

He said it was within Hiqa’s remit to bring that hospital up to standard, but this didn’t happen.

Mr Collins asked Hiqa CEO Phelim Quinn why the facilities were allowed "to operate in a substandard way".

Mary Dunnion, chief inspector of social services and director of regulation, said: “A number of nursing homes are not compliant.

“However, there is a statutory instrument which has given statutory and private providers a period of time to allow them to become compliant.

“Therefore, it would be illegal for us to take any regulatory action because they have been given time to get their premises in order."

Mr Collins then asked: “I'd like to know who signed the statutory instrument because that cost the lives of many people in community hospitals where there was a Covid outbreak.”

She replied: “The statutory instrument is signed by the minister of health.”

Earlier this year, when asked about the statutory instrument, then health minister Simon Harris told the Dáil “there is a sad multitude of reasons” for deaths in nursing homes.

But he said: “It is, perhaps, too soon to be able to fully identify those reasons.”

Earlier in the hearing, Fergus O’Dowd TD attacked Hiqa over Covid-19 outbreaks in nursing homes.

He said he was “horrified” about the way relatives of those who died were being treated by the health watchdog.

Mentioning the 23 residents at Dealgan House Nursing Home in Dundalk who died from Covid-19 in particular, Mr O'Dowd attacked Hiqa’s “lack of staff, lack of inspections, lack of accountability”.

He claimed relatives of those who died had got “no help” from Hiqa when it came to the release of information.

What has been released has, he said, been heavily redacted.

“Families are looking for information and your refusal to give information under the Freedom of Information Act is deeply hurting them,” he said.

“23 people died and I want to know what Hiqa did to protect those people.

“People are dead and there are people grieving.

“They are not getting closure.”

People Before Profit's Bríd Smith TD said there needs to be public inquiry into nursing home deaths.

And she demanded to know why Hiqa stopped inspecting nursing homes on the day — March 13 — of the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in a nursing home.

Mr Quinn replied Hiqa made the decision on public health advice.

In his address earlier, he told the committee Hiqa had contributed to the Covid-19 Nursing Homes Expert Panel report, that was published on August 19 by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.

Mr Quinn said: “This report contains a range of recommendations aimed at safeguarding residents in nursing homes.

“A large number of recommendations require urgent implementation and or planning for implementation to commence immediately.”

He said these include an increase in the volume and frequency of on-site inspection activity to at least one inspection per center per year.