The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has identified issues at a number of Health Service Executive run disability services in the northwest.
The independent watchdog, RTE News is reporting, has published 41 reports on designated centres for people with disabilities nationwide.
Non-compliance with the regulations and standards was identified at three centres based in the HSE’s Community Healthcare Organisation Area 1, which is the northwest region.
HIQA undertook a review of all HSE centres in Donegal due to concerns about management, governance and oversight following the publication of the Brandon Report in December 2021 into abuse by a patient at the Ard na Greine facility in Stranorlar.
In response to that review, the HSE submitted a compliance plan describing actions to be undertaken.
A number of the reports published today are part of a programme of inspections by HIQA to verify whether the actions have been implemented.
The aim is to assess whether those actions have been effective in governance, oversight and safeguarding centres for people with disabilities in Donegal.
Inspectors found a “high level of non-compliance” at two HSE centres where better safeguarding arrangements were required.
Inspectors found that improvements were required at one centre to ensure that residents were safeguarded and protected from abuse.
While there was a local safeguarding and protection policy in place, this required review, according to HIQA.
Three staff members required training in safeguarding and protection and inspectors found that the staff on duty were unsure of the plans that were in place.
An incident of concern was noted to have occurred in October 2022, however, this was not immediately recognised as a safeguarding concern at that time.
This led to a delay of ten days until it was reported to the Chief Inspector and to the HSE Safeguarding and Protection Team.
In addition, a previous serious safeguarding and protection concern occurred in January 2022 at the same centre.
This appeared to occur over two days according to the report. However, HIQA says it is unclear whether the concern was acknowledged as a safeguarding concern and reported on the first day that it was witnessed, or not.
Improvements in staffing, the premises, managing complaints and notifying incidents to HIQA as required by regulations were also noted.
At two other HSE centres, improvements were required in maintaining records and in the management of medications.
While there have been improvements in the northwest, HIQA said the centres were not providing the standard of care and support residents are entitled.
This was mainly due to staffing issues. At one centre, despite a defined management structure and a clear line of authority, the inspector found this was not working well at the time of the inspection.
In this case it was suggested that procedures be put in place to ensure that concerns raised by residents were acknowledged, recorded and addressed in line with the providers complaints policy.
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