Hiqa CEO apologises at Oireachtas committee for 'failings' over nursing home abuses

Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) Chief Executive Angela Fitzgerald leaving Leinster House, Dublin, after Hiqa representatives appeared before the Health Committee over standards of care at nursing homes. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

The health watchdog has apologised for its “failings” in relation to the recent exposé of abuses recorded in nursing homes.

Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) chief executive Angela Fitzgerald made the apology to the Oireachtas Health Committee to address issues raised after RTÉ’s recent nursing home investigation.

The shocking scenes saw older people being forced into chairs or left in incontinence pads for so long their clothes were soaked. There was also footage of 80-year-old Audeon Guy being roughly handled at the Beneavin Manor nursing home in Glasnevin, run by Emeis Ireland.

Ms Fitzgerald said: “We do need to say, how can we be better in this space? What can we do? I think we need to look at how we look under the bonnet.

“We would like to say we're really sorry to the families directly impacted and to the wider community. We know you feel you've been failed by the nursing home and to some extent, by us. We want to be answerable for that, and we want to work to make it better.” 

She said the conduct of staff and the behaviours witnessed at Firstcare Beneavin Manor and The Residence Portlaoise were “wholly unacceptable in any​ circumstance” and Hiqa is “addressing these fundamental issues directly”.

Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) Deputy Chief Inspector Susan Cliffe (right) and Chief Inspector Finbarr Colfer (left) leaving Leinster House, Dublin, after Hiqa representatives appeared before the Health Committee over standards of care at nursing homes. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Action includes a number of unannounced inspections in both facilities over the past two weeks, including during the early hours of the morning, late at night and during the day.

The providers of the two nursing homes have also been​, she said, issued with an official warning of cancellation of registration should they fail to implement significant improvements in the centres.

TDs and senators were also told that Hiqa has​ notified gardaí about concerns on the “care deficits observed in the programme”.

She said: 

Fundamentally, what we witnessed constituted a breach of basic human rights which can never be condoned. 

Committee chair and Social Democrats TD for Cork South-Central Pádraig Rice questioned why it took RTÉ’s programme to get an “adequate” response from Hiqa to the issues the documentary raised.

He said: “There is a sense that concerns were raised, protective disclosures, concerns from people, but actually, it took the airing of a TV program to get an adequate response.” 

Hiqa’s deputy chief inspector with responsibility for services for older persons, Susan Cliffe, said the watchdog had taken “escalated, regulatory action” in relation to allegations about abuse.

Sinn Féin senator Nicole Ryan said: “The outrage is huge around this, and the question the public has right now is, what does Hiqa actually do?

If they don't have powers to enforce anything, what's the point of Hiqa in any aspect of this kind of stuff?

“At the end of the day, these are people, they're residents, they're human beings and they deserve dignity.” 

Sinn Féin’s David Cullinane flagged the fact that RTÉ had informed Hiqa 12 days before the programme aired details that were to be exposed.

He said at least two months before the programme was aired, Hiqa had also received protected disclosures made to Hiqa about the homes that featured in the programme.

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Labour’s Marie Sherlock demanded Hiqa explain what it had done regarding disclosures about a home that hadn’t featured in the RTÉ programme made by a whistleblower.

Ms Cliffe said the watchdog has begun a series of inspections of all of the homes run by Emeis Ireland.

“We are still reviewing the totality of the information we have received,” she said.

Hiqa chief inspector of social services Finbarr Colfer added: “We have looked at all the info we get but it doesn’t automatically result in an inspection. But we follow up on information.”