Missing woman - Care homes need every precaution

The circumstances surrounding the disappearance of an elderly woman from the Bray nursing home illustrates the vital importance of ensuring that every precaution be taken to protect vulnerable people, especially at this time of year because of the hard weather.

This case is a particularly poignant one, as the woman had been returned to the home after enjoying Christmas lunch with her family and within a few short hours was found to have gone missing.

Suffering from Alzheimers disease and cancer, her relatives believe that 76-year-old Maura Reynolds opened a back door and disappeared into the night.

It should not have been allowed to happen, and the fact that it did in an apparently excellently run nursing home points to the fact that under the best conditions vigilance can slip.

The fact that the Tara Nursing Home is approved by the Health Services Executive - and had been seemingly without incident in the 10 years of the current ownership - is a moot point in the face of one of its 50 residents going missing.

Families who are compelled by circumstances to find nursing home accommodation for relatives must be assured that the care and attention must include not just medical attention and their comfort, but also their physical safety.

That obviously necessitates particular measures be taken, such as secured exits as a minimum, where residents are not, and cannot, be cognisant of risks to their own safety.

Every precaution, enforceable by legislation and a very strict inspection regimen, should be put in place to ensure that nothing as far as is practically possible, including simple human error, can jeopardise their safety.