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All but one of the 24 residents still in a Co Kerry nursing home that was taken over by the HSE following a court order tested positive for coronavirus, it has been discovered.
A spokesman for the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) said that six former residents died of unspecified causes in recent weeks and that several others have been hospitalized.
HSE COO Anne O’Connor said she was aware that “there have been six deaths of people who tested positive for Covid within that facility.”
A Hiqa inspection of Oaklands Nursing Home, Derry, Listowel, on Nov. 4, found that residents who had tested positive for the virus were mixing with others who did not have the disease, Listowel District Court heard earlier Thursday. to grant an HSE order in charge.
There were no objections to the order from the company that operated the nursing home, Bolden (Nursing) Ltd. The company is owned by Michael O’Donoghue, domiciled in Listowel, and Michael Joseph O’Donoghue and Mary O’Donoghue, from a separate address in Listowel, according to the latest annual report submitted to the Business Registration Office. It does not operate any other nursing home.
‘Significant outbreak’
The nursing home, which can house up to 51 residents, was inspected by Hiqa in June this year, again in September and twice earlier this month. The HSE said it provided a high level of support to the nursing home in recent weeks as it faced “a significant outbreak” of the virus.
The concern of residents was such that the HSE “had to step in to provide clinical governance for a period of time,” HSE Cork Kerry Community Healthcare said in a statement.
Earlier this week, the HSE returned the clinical governance of Oaklands to its owners as it had stabilized the coronavirus-related situation, he said.
“We understand that Hiqa was still not satisfied with a variety of issues, including the owners’ governance arrangements.”
The latest accounts submitted for Bolden show that he lost € 133,543 in 2018, having made a profit of € 444,777 the previous year. The accumulated profit at the end of 2018 was 2.4 million euros.
Hiqa’s report on the June inspection of the nursing home was released earlier this month. According to the report, the inspectors received positive feedback from the 38 residents then living in the home, but noted insufficient supervision of staff, especially in relation to infection control.
Inspectors
The registered supplier confirmed to inspectors that there had been no person in charge of the center since May 8, although the report acknowledged that the supplier was actively trying to hire a qualified person.
Inspectors said Bolden was overly dependent on one person and that communication appeared to have broken down between the two members of the company’s board of directors.
The day after the inspection, one of the company’s directors resigned, according to the report, and two new directors were appointed in July. A new CEO had also been appointed, according to the report.
The report also said that the center was acting as “multi-resident pension agents” and was not complying with the rules of the Department of Social Protection according to which their full pension had to be paid to a resident before deductions were made.
He said the provider had since told inspectors that it was no longer acting as a pension agent for residents.
At the time, Michael O’Donoghue told Radio Kerry that he had run the business since his parents had retired and that he and the staff had been working to address the issues raised by Hiqa.
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