Two Offaly nursing homes compliant in all areas following inspection

INSPECTIONS by the Health Quality and Information Authority HIQA on Riada House in Tullamore and Carthage Nursing Home in Mucklagh found compliance across all areas inspected.

As part of the ''short notice'' but ''announced'' inspection, residents of Riada House were spoken to along with the people who visit them to find out their experience of the service. They also talked with staff and management to find out how they plan to deliver and monitor the care and support services that are provided to people who live in the centre.

The inspection took place on March 12, 2020, just prior to the Covid-19 pandemic taking hold in Ireland. The results were published earlier this month.

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Riada House Community Nursing Unit is a 35 bed facility. Residents' accommodation is arranged on ground floor level in two units known as San Pio and St. Anthony's Wards. There are 14 single bedrooms, nine twin bedrooms and one bedroom with three beds.

All bedrooms have access to en suite toilets and showering facilities. The centre provides care for male and female residents over 18 years of age with continuing care, dementia, respite and palliative care needs. There are two sitting rooms, a dining room, oratory, sensory room and several seated areas off the circulating corridors available to residents. The provider employs nurses and care staff to provide care for residents on a 24 hour basis.

Inspectors found that ''a significant number of residents in the centre had dementia and one-to-one and small group activities were modified to ensure their needs were met. The varied programme of activities provided for residents included some opportunities for them to go into the local community with assistance from staff, personal assistants or family members ensuring their quality of life was optimised. Many residents were observed by the inspector enjoying coordinated activities in one of the sitting rooms. There was a nice atmosphere and residents and staff were chatting and laughing together. Residents said they enjoyed the activities going on in the centre and told the inspector that they had attended Mass in the centre earlier in the day. A resident's relative said that there was a lot of interesting activities going on and there was always plenty of fun and laughs for residents.''

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The announced inspection at Carthage Nursing Home, Mucklagh also took place prior to the pandemic reaching Ireland. The findings were published recently and inspectors found compliance across all areas.

According to the report, Carthage Nursing Home is a purpose-built facility. The centre is registered to provide residential care to 63 residents, both male and female over the age of 18 years. The centre caters for residents with long term care, respite, palliative and convalescence care needs.

The centre provides 24 hour nursing care to residents. Residents with health and social care needs with all dependency levels are considered for admission. There are 39 single, six twin and four triple bedrooms. All single bedrooms, three twin bedrooms and one triple bedroom have full en suite facilities. A hand wash sink is provided in the other four twin bedrooms and the bedrooms with three beds. Residents have access to safe enclosed courtyard gardens.

Residents told the inspector that, ''they enjoyed having access to several communal sitting areas and one resident said 'this gives her choice as to where she spends her time'. Another resident spoke about access as she wished to the two outdoor areas especially in nice weather as being important for her. The inspector saw that seating in one of the two courtyards was sheltered by branches from a large evergreen tree and provided shade from the sun in warmer weather. Residents' bedrooms were observed by the inspector to be spacious with shelving provided to display photographs and ornaments and sufficient storage facilities for residents' clothing and other belongings. Several residents said they 'loved their bedroom' and that it was 'quiet', and liked that they 'can see the moon' from their bedroom window.'

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''Staff were observed to be respectful, kind and gentle towards residents and to utilise every opportunity to interact positively and chat with residents. Several residents commented on the kindness of staff.''

There were two areas in which the centre was substantially compliant, they were record keeping and the premises.

According to the report ''a judgment of substantially compliant means that the provider or person in charge has generally met the requirements of the regulation but some action is required to be fully compliant.''

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