More than 200 complaints made to HIQA about centres for older people in Cork 

More than 200 complaints were made to Hiqa about Cork designated centres for older people over a 16-month period, with the majority of these about residents’ rights or management.

Hiqa told The Echo that it received 13% more complaints nationally in 2023 than in 2022 about the centres.

Some 203 complaints were seen by The Echo under the Freedom of Information Act — from January 1, 2023, to April 30, 2024 — with all of the concerned parties having multiple areas of concern and some reporting as many as 17 areas.

Complaints 

A total of 136 complaints were made about governance and management in the designated centres.

Hiqa published 129 inspection reports into Cork centres during this period, with governance and management one of the most common areas for a centre to be not compliant in, as non-compliance in other regulations is often ruled to be as a result of poor oversight.

There were also 129 complaints made about safeguarding, which has to do with residents’ privacy, equality, dignity, and autonomy, as well as protecting residents from abuse.

Some 122 complaints were made about resident’s rights, which is assessed by whether residents have a voice in decisions made about their life, their ability to meet with family/friends in private or access advocacy services.

Centres that are marked non-compliant in this area in inspections are often found not to have sufficient activities available for residents, leaving them sitting watching TV all day or not to hold resident’s meetings or take their views into consideration.

There were 78 complaints made about communication, an area that is assessed by whether residents are communicated with respectfully and effectively in an accessible format specific to their assessed needs.

Up to 69 complaints were made about care planning — each resident has an individual care plan which is to be written with the input of the resident themselves or their family, which helps to personalise their treatment to their needs and wishes.

Centres are marked down in inspections if care plans do not reflect the specific needs of the resident, if there has been no consultation from the resident in the plan, if it has not been reviewed formally for over four months or is not updated in response to changing needs.

Some 40 calls were made by people concerned about staffing, a common area of non-compliance in reports into individual centres, with insufficient staffing meaning residents waiting for assistance, that there are no activities organised or potential evacuation issues the event of a fire occurring.

Complaints reviewed

Hiqa told The Echo that all complaints received are reviewed by an inspector to establish if the information received indicates a risk to the safety, effectiveness, and management of the service.

Where the information indicates that people may be at immediate risk, Hiqa will ensure that relevant authorities such as Gardaí or the HSE Adult Safeguarding and Protection Team are informed.

A Hiqa spokesperson added: “Each piece of information helps inspectors to form an overall understanding of how the centre or service is being run.”