McGuinness questions why Hiqa won't investigate nursing home complaints

Hiqa is being pressed to explain why it won't investigate nursing home complaints.

Hiqa should be challenged on its reasons why it won't investigate nursing home complaints, according to the former Public Accounts Committee chairman.

John McGuinness said he is writing to the Oireachtas Health Committee to ask it to bring Hiqa chiefs in to explain their decision.

The TD was responding to a statement on the health watchdog’s website which says it does not investigate individual complaints.

When asked about this by the Irish Examiner, it stated that statutory investigations it could conduct do not carry “any enforceable sanctions”.

This led Cork TD Colm Burke to raise the matter at the recent Select Committee on Health debate on the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022.

He asked Minister of State with Special Responsibility for Disability, Anne Rabbitte to look into it and she promised she would.

Mr McGuinness told the Irish Examiner: “I believe if we're going to learn anything from what went wrong in nursing homes, particularly during the pandemic, then Hiqa should be investigating the cases that are brought to their attention.

“The reality is that the current legislation allows them to investigate.

“I believe Hiqa has an obligation to go and investigate them but to say that they don't have powers is not true. They have powers. 

"I think Hiqa should be an organisation that goes after the truth in the interest of the care of the citizens of this state.” 

He said he is writing to the Health Committee to "ask them to bring Hiqa in and for them to be challenged on their reasons why they won't investigate individual complaints".

In its 2021 brochure on "How to provide feedback or make a complaint about residential services for older persons", the watchdog states: "Hiqa is unable to investigate individual complaints about a health or social care service under the Health Act 2007."

Families of those who died in nursing homes and who asked Hiqa to investigate have said they are constantly being told by watchdog staff that it won't investigate their complaints.

But Section 9 of the Health Act (2007) provides that Hiqa can in fact undertake an investigation into safety, quality, and standards of services provided by a nursing home if it has “reasonable grounds” to believe there is “a serious risk” to the welfare of a person receiving those services.

When asked about why it doesn't investigate, Hiqa said: “A statutory investigation conducted by Hiqa does not carry any enforceable sanctions and therefore could not be guaranteed to achieve improvements for resident care.” 

Hiqa has received a number of complaints from some of a growing group of families who lost loved ones among the 2,100-plus nursing home residents who died.

The complaints, many of which are being looked at by gardaí, allege residents suffered abuse and neglect in a small number of homes before they died.

When TD Colm Burke raised the issue of Hiqa investigations, his Fine Gael colleague Bernard Durkan in the same debate told fellow TDs the “system is breaking down”.

He said there are too many “blockages” to investigations and he asked if authorities are “too afraid to investigate”?

“Hiqa or any responsible body (should) be able to react to a situation in a variety of situations, from Kerry, to Donegal (where) there are situations that should not be happening,” he said.

“But as situations continue to happen, where people are at risk, where complaints have been made . . . nothing has changed.”