Nursing home reports should be fair and transparent
There is no consistency of application, inspectors are not trained and there is no uniformity in their approach or the style of their reports.
The policy is a breach of fair procedures and constitutional justice in that any response to a report provided by the particular nursing home is omitted from the HSE website. This deprives the nursing home of a right of reply.
The inspection process must give nursing home operators a right of reply before one-sided, inaccurate and inconsistent reports undertaken by the HSE are posted on their website.
It is totally unacceptable, as has happened in a number of recent cases, that the HSE posts inspection reports on its website which are factually inaccurate, and fails to afford the operators any opportunity to put their side of the story.
When Professor Des O’Neill produced his report on Leas Cross, the HSE objected to its publication until its staff had a chance to put their side of that story. Indeed, when the report was eventually published, the HSE’s response was longer than Prof O’Neill’s original report. All nursing home operators are as entitled to natural justice as is the HSE itself.
It would be a mistake for any person to conclude that the heavy burden required of natural justice and fair procedures is discharged by merely conveying a copy of an inspection report in draft form without any further action. Where a nursing home inspection report is met with a response from the nursing home owner which contradicts, clarifies or expresses disagreement with the terms of the inspection report, that fact ought be reflected in the finalised, published inspection report.
However, this is not happening. Our members find that their responses to inspection reports are being ignored. A clear pattern has emerged — the draft reports almost always become finalised reports without reflecting in any way the submissions or views of the nursing home owner.
Our members want to contribute to the enhancement of the inspection regime. We have this goal in common with the HSE.
It is also time to end the anomaly between private and state nursing homes whereby nursing homes in the public sector, accounting for 40% of all long-term beds, are not subjected to inspections in the same way as private homes. All nursing homes, public and private, should be inspected under new, updated legislation, and subject to the same set of standards
Tadhg Daly
Chief Executive
Irish Nursing Homes Organisation
Centrepoint Business Park
Oak road
Dublin 12
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