Resident rights an issue of concern in Cork city care home

Delays in responding to call bells, a lack of activities on weekends, and unanswered complaints were among issues identified at Douglas Nursing and Retirement Home in a recent Hiqa report.

The report described the centre as “homely and welcoming” and highlighted residents’ description of the “approachable and friendly staff”, but identified several concerns.

Overall, the centre was compliant in eight areas, substantially compliant in four, and not compliant in three.

One area of non-compliance was residents’ rights, with inspectors noting that residents reported delays in call bells being answered.

Nurses did not carry call-bell pagers and, on the day of the inspection, “nurses were not aware that bells were ringing”, as the task had been delegated to care staff, resulting in delays in residents receiving help.

Medication

There was also a concern that residents were not provided with meaningful activities at the weekends. Concerns about delays in care and about medication had been brought to the attention of the management, but were not appropriately documented.

“There was no record of how these issues were acknowledged, investigated, or resolved to the satisfaction of the complainant,” according to the report, and there was not always a written response to the complainant — which is a requirement.

Additionally, some documentation pertaining to adverse incidents involving residents was not fully completed, two wound-care charts had inconsistent clinical measurements, and some care plans were missing information, with one resident not having a seizure-management care plan.

Fire safety concerns 

Concerns relating to fire safety were also noted. Furniture and the carpet in the smoking room had evidence of scorch marks and burns, suggesting that they were not made of appropriate fire-retardant material.

There was a gap in the management structure, with the lack of an assistant director of nursing for a year. This should have been the designated person to deputise in the absence of the person in charge. The inspector was informed that the provider was in the process of recruiting an additional manager to cover this vacancy.

The provider also said that since the inspection, nurses now carry pagers, a staff member has been allocated to activities on Saturdays and Sundays, and training sessions on record management were to be organised.