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Testing delays and staffing shortages exacerbated a major outbreak of coronavirus at a Dundalk nursing home, which has seen 23 residents die since early April, primarily from Covid-19.
Dealgan House is an 84-bed private nursing home in Dundalk, Co Louth, and one of the worst affected nursing homes in the country.
Internal correspondence, seen by The Irish Times, shows that management at home cited testing delays, staffing shortages, and lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) as key factors behind the outbreak.
Despite several calls for PPE teams during March, the private home did not receive any shipments from HSE until after its first confirmed case in early April.
On March 6, Nursing Homes Ireland (NHI), which represents private and voluntary nursing homes, advised establishments to ban visitors. Dealgan House limited residents to one visitor per day, but did not impose a total ban until March 13.
Tom Mulholland (84) was one of 23 residents in the nursing home who died in the past five weeks.
“We would be in a horrible bunch, I had at least three visitors a day, once they got into the running of the bulls it was very difficult to get in touch,” her daughter Roisin Duffy told The Irish Times.
In the week after the facility had its first Covid-19 case on April 4, the family “heard nothing” about Mr. Mulholland’s condition. “I could maybe call seven times and not go through,” Duffy said.
By April 10, three residents had tested positive for Covid-19, and several others showed symptoms.
Eoin Farrelly, managing director, told family members in a written update that the test results “came back very slowly.” “The lack of testing for staff showing symptoms has been a major challenge,” he said, as staff were out of work for 14 self-isolated days.
“During March we ordered and stored as much PPE as we could get,” but the search for medical-grade equipment was difficult, according to the correspondence.
The house did not receive PPE from the HSE “despite multiple requests” until after the first case on April 4, he said.
At the end of April 12, the Mulholland family received a call to inform them that an ambulance had been called by their father, and six of the eight brothers ran to the house to see how the ambulance was pulling him out.
“It looked so bad, all masked. I will never get that image out of my head, ”said Duffy.
The following Tuesday, he tested positive for Covid-19 at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, and was being treated for kidney failure.
Margaret Mulholland (76), his wife of more than 50 years, was unable to visit him in the hospital and died on April 20.
There was a “lack of communication” about the extent of the outbreak and the deterioration of his father’s condition, Duffy said.
“There is no blame game here, it has gone beyond that, we want to know the sequence of how it happened,” he said.
In an email sent to family members on April 17, Farrelly said the absence of key administrative personnel due to Covid-19 had “affected our communication skills.”
The outbreak affected a “significant proportion” of staff, with the remaining workers focused on caring for residents.
At that stage, Dealgan House was receiving “significant assistance from HSE to address staff and equipment limitations,” he said.
Management believed the outbreak had “passed the worst point” and was being controlled, he said. However, later that day, the Hospital Group of the Royal College of Surgeons (RCSI) took over the operation of the facilities.
Farrelly was not available for the interview. On Thursday it released a statement saying that Dealgan House “offers our deepest condolences” to the families of the 23 residents who had died.
The support from additional RCSI staff would “gradually decrease” as nursing home staff return to work, he said.
The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) announced on Friday that it would conduct an inspection of Dealgan House “in the near future.”
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