Insufficient chairs in dining room at Cork city nursing home

There were insufficient chairs in overcrowded dining rooms at a Cork city nursing home, while the centre’s occupational therapy room was unusable as it was being used to store chairs, a recent Hiqa report has shown.

Residents living in Farranlea Road Community Nursing Unit gave positive feedback about the quality of care they received in the centre, and said staff were “helpful, caring, and kind”.

However, issues with record keeping were identified; and while inspectors noted there were some improvements in the provision of training since the previous inspection, fire training was still due for 10% of staff, safeguarding training for 14%, manual handling for 10% and management of responsive behaviour for a further 10%.

Overall, the centre was marked compliant in eight areas, substantially compliant in seven and not compliant in one.

Dining room facilities on three of the units where 25 residents resided did not have sufficient space for all residents and there were not enough chairs, leading to overcrowding.

Residents also told the inspectors they were concerned by the reduction in activity staff which impacted activities such as outings and some days there were no activities available.

CCTV was seen to be in use in one of the units to record communal spaces. However, inspectors were not assured that residents were aware they were being recorded.

The premises itself was also a source of concern. A quiet room was poorly ventilated so not in use and mattresses were stored in communal bathrooms on some units, therefore making these areas inaccessible to residents.

A number of handrails on corridors were observed to be broken, posing an injury risk to residents, while privacy screens were insufficient, and televisions in multi-occupancy bedrooms were not visible for all residents living in the room due to where they were situated.

The HSE told Hiqa after the inspection that all outstanding staff training had been scheduled for completion, plans for handrail repair were in place, new chairs were being ordered, a new storage shed would be built so rooms could be used again, and installation of a ventilation system in the quiet room was being explored.

The HSE added that due to unavailability of staff within the in-house activity team, an external service provider has been engaged to cover the resulting gaps in the activity provision, and assured Hiqa that residents are informed about the CCTV camera recording.