[ad_1]
The Health Services Executive (HSE) rejected a request to continue running a Co Kerry nursing home during a severe Covid-19 outbreak, despite pleas from the home’s general manager that the situation is “crisis” it was getting worse, the emails show.
The HSE maintained that it had “stabilized the situation” at Oaklands Nursing Home, and on November 18 declined an appeal to continue to oversee the clinical management of the facility.
The following day, the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) requested a court order ordering the HSE to take over the facility, due to the risk to the lives of residents amid serious flaws in infection control.
The 51-bed nursing home in Listowel had been run by a private provider, Bolden (Nursing) Ltd.
Correspondence between HSE, Hiqa and the nursing home was turned over to The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act.
The HSE initially took over the clinical operation on November 4, as the nursing home was in “chaos” during a severe Covid-19 outbreak, after 30 residents and nine staff members tested positive.
In a Nov. 4 email, the HSE said “this will be for a minimum of two weeks and we anticipate a period of up to four weeks or until the management and staffing structure can be stabilized.”
However, a week later, Michael Fitzgerald, CEO of HSE Cork-Kerry Community Health Care, told Hiqa that the management of the home would be returned to the private provider on November 16.
In an email dated November 13, the general manager of the nursing home wrote to Mr. Fitzgerald requesting that HSE continue to manage the facility for the originally planned four-week period.
In response, Mr. Fitzgerald said that “it is the opinion of the HSE, that as a service provider it has sufficient nursing management capacity available.”
“We are also satisfied that the residents have been clinically managed to a stable position,” he said.
On November 17, after resuming the management of the house, the general manager sent an email to the HSE describing a severe shortage of staff.
“I keep struggling with staffing when it comes to nursing staff. I only have three out of nine nurses available to work, ”she said.
In response, the HSE said it was trying to draw staff from other health services to help, but that this was proving “very challenging.”
The general manager said the situation had “gotten worse” and she was in “crisis mode.” She asked HSE as a matter of “extreme urgency” to send a leading clinical nurse practitioner to Oaklands.
In a November 18 letter, Mr. Fitzgerald told the nursing home that “it is not the intention of the HSE to resume its role as clinical leader and we have to decline their invitation.”
“It is not the case that the HSE is willing to remain in a facility indefinitely and their expectation is that the provider maintains or resumes full responsibility, including staffing and supervision, as soon as possible,” he said.
The following day, Hiqa applied for a court order to cancel the registration of the nursing home for security reasons and to order the HSE to take responsibility for the residents.
The HSE closed the facility earlier this month and the remaining residents were moved elsewhere.
An HSE spokeswoman said it had provided “a high level of support” for Oaklands in late October and November. He took over the clinical management for the “shortest time possible” and subsequently continued to provide support and staff.
“We understand that Hiqa was still not satisfied with a variety of supplier-related issues, including government agreements, and had such concerns that led them to decide to seek the court order to withdraw the registration,” he said.
[ad_2]