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Six residents of a Kerry nursing home have died after a Covid-19 outbreak.
The Oaklands Nursing Home in Listowel, Co Kerry was the subject of an unannounced Hiqa inspection on June 18 this summer.
The inspection found flaws in six of the 18 Covid-19 compliance areas and reported that the nursing home had inadequate infection control measures and practices with the use of masks, hand disinfection, and inspection for infections of great concern.
The report found that the nursing home had not provided for social distancing when residents were dining.
Tables were set up for dinner with seven residents eating together in violation of Covid-19 compliance.
Speaking to Kerry Today with Jerry O’Sullivan on Radio Kerry, Sinn Féin TD Pa Daly said there are questions about how Hiqa is escalating the issues that arise from nursing homes.
Oaklands Listowel Nursing Home, now the center of an outbreak, failed to comply with governance and management as well as infection control in a @HIQA inspection in June https://t.co/F1ejvkE1Di
– Jerry O’Sullivan (@jerosullivanRK) November 18, 2020
When outbreaks occur in nursing homes, Daly said Hiqa must be able to react much faster to address them.
“They need to be able to move much faster, a period of six or really 12 weeks is not enough.
“It is literally a matter of life and death for the residents,” he said.
“When there is an outbreak locally, as there was in North Kerry, something is bound to happen, but it needs to be managed properly,” Daly said.
They must be able to move much faster, regulations must be changed.
Daly said that the precarious nature of care work and high staff turnover do not help improve the situation in tackling the coronavirus pandemic.
He also said that national standards in residential care settings for the elderly due to arrive in 2021 need to be reassessed in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Operators at the Oaklands nursing home have not responded to date on the report’s findings.
In their report, Hiqa said that Oaklands Nursing Home management had told them that steps had been taken to ensure social distancing of residents when they dine together since the appointment of a new Operations Manager on July 2, a month after the unannounced inspection.
At the time of the inspection in June, no cases of Covid-19 were reported; However, since then, 16 staff members and 31 residents of the nursing home have tested positive for the virus in early November.
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