A NURSING HOME resident who was described as having “specific needs” was observed wearing soiled outer clothing on the day of an unannounced HIQA inspection last year.

The HIQA inspection took place on 27 July, 2023, at Oaklodge Nursing Home in Churchtown South, Cloyne, Co Cork.

The Health Information and Quality Authority today published 50 inspection reports on residential centres for older people, which were carried out between May and December 2023.

Oaklodge Nursing Home in Co Cork was among four centres that were non-compliant with four or more regulations.

It was non-compliant with training and staff development regulations and HIQA reported that “inadequate mentoring and inadequate staff supervision appeared to have an adverse impact on residents’ care”.

On the day of the inspection, a person with “very specific needs” was wearing soiled outer clothes and their room had not been cleaned.

The inspector also noted that call bells took a long time to be answered and that “nursing staff did not adequately supervise residents’ care needs”.

The HIQA inspector said this “resulted in residents not being washed appropriately and not having their clothes changed when required”.

There were also a number of residents who “regularly entered other resident’s bedrooms uninvited.”

“This has caused distress to the residents and their relatives and there was an inadequate system of supervision or redirection of these residents to prevent reoccurrence,” noted the inspector.

Some residents also told the inspector that some residents “walked uninvited into their rooms and interfered with their belongings, and at these times they did not always feel safe”.

Oaklodge Nursing Home was also deemed to be not compliant regarding the health care regulation.

For example, the inspector found that some residents had “unexplained weight loss” while another had an “unexplained bruise and skin tear2.

There was also insufficient evidence that residents with complex medical needs were referred to specialists in a timely manner, and prescribed blood tests were not taken when due for one resident.

The inspector added that there has been a “small number of late regulatory notifications of serious injury, which indicated that staff, seemingly, failed to recognise, in a timely manner, when a serious injury had occurred”.

The centre was also not compliant with regards to notifying the Chief Inspector of an incident in a timely manner, which included two serious injuries and an allegation of staff misconduct.

The above late notifications were also a contributing factor to the centre also being deemed non-compliant with regulations around governance and management.

Where non-compliance with the regulations is identified, providers must demonstrate how they will make improvements and come into compliance with the regulations.

In the case of Oaklodge Nursing Home, it was tasked with becoming compliant in these four areas by the end of October last.

Oaklodge Nursing Home told the inspector that it has since had a “successful recruitment drive” and has appointed an operations manager, assistant director of nursing, a staff nurse and several healthcare assistants.

External training has also been completed in incident reporting and recording.

Regarding health care, all resident’s weight is now reviewed weekly and nursing staff have completed updated training on assessing and managing the pain of older people with dementia.