As nursing home closes, board says it had no choice

As the last elderly patient moved out of a West Cork nursing home this week, its voluntary board insisted it was left with no choice but to close the facility.

The situation where residents suffered “the heartbreak of parting from their friends” was the consequence of an “impossible situation”, the chairman of the voluntary society that ran the facility noted said.

The last patient left Cara House in Skibbereen on the eve of yesterday’s deadline for vacating the premises found to be in breach of of regulations by the State’s health watchdog.

In particular, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) expressed grave reservations that high-dependency residents were being cared for by non-nursing personnel.

HIQA also found that the facilities were entirely inadequate and unsuitable to provide appropriate standards of care to the residents, most of whom were high-dependency.

It wrote to the board on May 31 warning of prosecutions if the breaches were not addressed by the end of this month.

The 20-year-old facility had been run on a voluntary basis by Skibbereen Geriatric Society, which said it was neither practical nor affordable to employ nurses on a round-the-clock basis. The society also said it would be impossible to upgrade facilities, as demanded by HIQA, mostly because of the physical space as well as the expense involved.

HIQA had also looked for an immediate age evaluation assessment of all residents. The society said it failed to have the assessment carried out, despite repeated attempts.

The absence of the assessment meant that high- dependency residents continued to be cared for in breach of the law.

It said HIQA had called for the immediate removal of all high-dependency residents and refused to allow the facility to remain open in it present state to provide care for low-dependency residents only

The society’s chairman, Martin O’Mahony, said the organisation that employed around 20 people — mostly part-time and relief staff — found itself in an impossible situation.

Mr O’Mahony said it was decided to close the facility so as not to prolong the trauma caused to residents by ongoing uncertainty.

“Without the support of HIQA, the continued operation of Cara House was impossible,” he said.

Mr O’Mahony said the organisation intended to continue serving the community’s elderly population, but it would no longer be involved in the provision of residential care.