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A NURSING HOME staff member was accused in a complaint to Hiqa of squeezing a resident’s face and using abusive language towards them, according to newly released documents.
In one piece of unsolicited information sent to Hiqa, the Health Information and Quality Authority, there is an allegation of a staff member being observed “physically and verbally abusing” someone.
In that same entry – which is heavily redacted in places – the following account is given:
“When they walked into the room, another staff member was already there. They had their hand over the [REDACTED] mouth and nose.
They were squeezing the residents face and telling them to be quiet using abusive language. [REDACTED] concerned this abuse may have been happening for a while but the [REDACTED] could not communicate this.
The allegation is contained in documents released to TheJournal.ie under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents concern unsolicited information received by Hiqa in relation to older persons’ services throughout 2017.
Hiqa has a legal responsibility for the monitoring, inspection and registration of designated nursing homes in Ireland.
The information comes from anyone concerned about something in a nursing home. Hiqa is unable to investigate individual complaints raised, but uses them to inform its inspections.
The concerns are heavily redacted in places and are undated. All identifying material of the centres and people involved are removed, in order to respect their privacy.
Despite this, they give a real glimpse into the widespread issues and failings in residential care centres and nursing homes across Ireland.
Sexual and physical abuse of residents, inadequate staffing, elderly people being left without help after soiling themselves, unhelpful staff, no space and an overall lack of care are the most common issues raised.
Recently, Hiqa published reports into 17 residential centres for elderly people. It found widespread compliance in 13 and areas of non-compliance in four.
Rusty tables, foul smells and a lack of privacy were the main issues found in one centre.
Abuse
In total over 500 individual pieces of unsolicited information were received by Hiqa throughout 2017 to November. They range from minor issues to the very severe.
According to one complainant, a male staff member at a care facility “uses sexual innuendo towards female residents and creates an uncomfortable atmosphere among residents and staff”.
They said that female residents at the care centre are afraid of male care assistants helping them as a result of this, “especially during the night hours when there are no female staff on duty”.
“Care staff are intimidating residents,” the complainant says.
In another instance in the documents, someone said they left a centre “due to an incident they witnessed of physical abuse by another staff member”.
The incident was reported to management who said the staff member in question had been fired “but they were not”.
In another case, there is a report of staff member smacking someone across the face.
Another concern raised involved someone claiming to have seen “a staff member physically assault a resident, this staff member continues to work in this service”.
Other complaints
Other common issues involve residents suffering regular falls and a lack of staff in centres. One document talks about residents being “bullied on a daily basis by staff and being treated unfairly”.
Another mentions how a patient was “found squashed in bed and fully dressed with shoes on”.
Another concerned person raises the issue of “a strong odour of urine and faeces in the bedroom”.
The resident is not assisted with personal hygiene. The bedroom and bathroom area is filthy and the strong odour is extremely unpleasant.
A serious allegation states that a resident is intimidated by a carer and “goes in the foetal position when the carer enters the bedroom”.
Yet another complaint involves a resident being told to strip naked on admission to a centre.
The complainant alleges that the person was “confused and embarrassed but did not verbalise these feelings to the staff involved”.
Other issues are widespread and continue in a similar vein, with complaints around staffing, overcrowding and lack of care.
Hiqa’s role
Hiqa does not have a remit to investigate the individual complaints and problems raised in the above cases. Rather, they use them to inform inspections on centres.
“The aim of the Health Information and Quality Authority is to advance high-quality and safe care for people accessing health and social care services in Ireland,” a spokesperson said.
“Where Hiqa has concerns related to the safety of residents and the quality of care that they are receiving, providers are required to take immediate action to address this.
Hiqa inspectors follow up with providers to ensure that the actions are being implemented and are resulting in improvements for residents.
Hiqa has powers to monitor, inspect and investigate to ensure standards and regulations are being upheld.
It is also able to take legal action against centres that consistently fail to uphold standards.
Fine Gael TD Fergus O’Dowd – who has raised issues around elderly persons’ services in the past – said that any allegations around mistreatment must be taken very seriously and investigated fully.
“Any allegations have to be taken very seriously – these are very vulnerable people who are being exploited,” he said.
They live in fear because they are elderly and are victims of abuse… and at the end of the day that is not acceptable.
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Should we scrap asking this question twice every year???
@Cathal S Byrne: Should we scrap people making the same comment twice every year???
@Cathal S Byrne: what next the weather? We’d have nothing to talk about.
@Cathal S Byrne: The Journal isn’t written by actual people, but instead a not-very-clever journo-bot. That’s why we get multiple Repeal8th articles, fawning Ibrahim Halawa love-letters and of course the “should pubs open on Good Friday?” or “should clocks go back/forward every year?” polls.
It couldn’t be real people getting paid to write this drivel, it must be some sort of computer program. The only thing is, though, my toaster would be able to write better articles than some of the stuff you see on this site.
@Cathal S Byrne: Tock, Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock Tick.
@Olllie B: But then I’d miss all this banter.
@Olllie B: Then he missed all the moaning.
@Cathal S Byrne: if you click the tags at the end of the comments, it’s a year to the day when they asked it last year. At least we know what to expect on 25th Oct 2018
@Cathal S Byrne: If you want nothing the government does to be questioned, go to North Korea!
@Cathal S Byrne: lets have a poll on it?
“A relic from a bygone era that no longer serves a useful purpose”
- 8th amendment
@Jesus Christ: it’s a time for change
@Jesus Christ: A bit like yourself…
@David Knight: well, I am over 2,000 years old tbf. That’s totally ageist David.
But I have an iPhone.
@Richard Wright: what a great metal band!
Has the journal run out of Ibrahim Halawa articles?
@the phantom: Simon Zebo stories will fill that spot
With brexit might be best time to align our clocks with Spain and France
@Celtic_Horizon: so we’d have 2 time zones in Ireland?
@Cathal S Byrne:
That’d be awesome, I’d get to wear my two watches at the same time without getting funny looks
@Celtic_Horizon: That’s great if you want it to be dark till 10 am in winter!
@Celtic_Horizon: Why shouldn’t they align with us? They were both on GMT until the Panzers rolled into France in 1940.
@Tweety McTweeter: dreams really do come true :)
@Celtic_Horizon: We’re too far west to go to that time zone, it makes no sense. At the minute we are the same as Portugal, they don’t have any issues with being in a different time zone than Spain.
@Rui Firmino: I’d be happy with that if it meant I got a couple hours after work in day light. Sure I’m stuck in office all day
@Celtic_Horizon: Well, I wouldn’t!
@Cathal S Byrne: spain and france are in the same time zone
@Cathal S Byrne: We already have two time zones in Ireland; the anti-choice brigade live in the 19th century
Welcome to March 2017.
http://www.thejournal.ie/poll-clocks-forward-3307277-Mar2017/
@Fay Moynihan:
That is kinda interesting though – at the moment both are showing exactly 72% in favour.
Looks like everyone has very entrenched positions – no change in the last 6 months.
Of the 21% who so far say No what is the reason for keeping it the way it is surely nobody likes going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark.
@TonySuperSaints: I agree. It’s hard enough getting out of bed in winter. But to get out of bed in winter in the pitch dark is worse.
@TonySuperSaints: I voted no, because it’d be counter-productive if only Ireland does it. However, it’d be a yes if the whole of Europe, and ideally North America also, ditch DST together.
@TonySuperSaints: I’d voted no because having two different time zones on the same tiny island would be absolute lunacy ffs.
@TonySuperSaints: Stopping the changeover would only affect one, not both. If we were to keep summer time all year round (which is what is generally suggested), then we would have darker mornings but brighter evenings. If we were to stay on winter time all year round (which I don’t think anyone wants) then you’d have brighter mornings and darker evenings. So voting “no” because you don’t like going to work AND coming home in the dark doesn’t make sense.
@Neil Downing: Precisely. The whole point of DST is that we DONT have darker mornings.
Clearly a lot of people don’t even understand the reasoning behind it – which is scary.
@TonySuperSaints: it makes it brighter in the morning actually, and either way, already at this time of year before the clocks change it’s pitch dark at 7.30 am and almost dark at 6
@TonySuperSaints: you will still have to come home from work in the dark in Irish winter regardless of the change , just sayin
I don’t understand why people wouldn’t want brighter evenings? Safety (driving, walking down an alleyway etc.) is greater when evenings are brighter and we would save millions in energy consumption. Of course it wouldn’t make sense if we were the only country to wind back the clocks, but the benefits of having longer evenings are plenty and in my opinion, hold greater value than “not having to wake up in the dark”.
@Ciara Scannell: Two different time-zones in the same tiny country would be the height of stupidity.
@Ciara Scannell: I think people are confusing what the actual effects of not changing really are , it doesn’t mean we get to live like it’s summer all year around , I would change it for sure but reading some of the comments ya would think we have the ability to prevent our glorious island from having dark winters at all , the effect would be pretty minimal and the utopian speculation about our children going out to play like bright summer evenings in December in Ireland are wide if the mark , the shortest day light of the year dec 21 will still be the shortest day light of the year regardless
@Dave Hammond: so let us keep our evening light and let bretix be in the dark, do we always have to live in the shadow of england!
@Tír Eoghain Gael: wouldn’t be two time zones in the one country, would be two time zones in two different countries
Here we are again…Same question every year
The MEP argued having brighter evenings in winter would lead to better outcomes for road safety, reduce energy consumption by having the lights on less and even encourage children to get out and exercise more.
I’ve got news for Deirdre Clune, the time from next week onwards is the “correct” time so to not change the clocks anymore it would still be exactly the same (i.e dark at 4/5pm at this time of the year)
@Life in no motion: That’s actually not correct. Ireland is actually on Central European Time. We have a special winter time, CET-1, which for some reason we don’t call Daylight Destruction Time. This is Ireland. There are excellent reasons for this.
@Life in no motion:
I can’t see it reducing energy consumption through lighting, it would still be dark when people get home.
@Robert Conneely: Correct, but the difference of darkness at 4pm to 5pm makes a massive difference. We use more electricity in the evening 5 – 7pm than at 5 – 7am. Plus I personally would rather see part of the day in daylight potentially coming home.
Most definitely. leave it as it is ,
It’s a complete waste of time !
BREAKING NEWS…Supervalue has topped the polls again in ireland as the nations favourite supermarket..
Just getting in ahead of the journals next weeks topic
Should we scrap having a poll about putting the clocks back or forward!
@Bill Murphy: If TheJournal had a influence over politicians with ability to change time change NO, otherwise YES.
Is it too early to talk about opening the pubs on good Friday
definitely as i work nights and my 12 hour shift becomes 13 hours!!!!
and im never on shift when its the other way round….. typical!!
Right on cue.
In Iceland you know what time of the year you have by looking out the window – they keep the same time all year round.
If only we could do the same – next week we will have drivers with no lights and suddenly dark evenings when a gradual winter acceptance would be better.
@eastsmer: Two different time-zones in the same tiny country would be lunacy.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: Only if there are still two different jurisdictions
@Tír Eoghain Gael: which country are you talking about – the Republic of Ireland, or Northern Ireland?
@Jumperoo: He probably means you know that Ireland, that is the most westerly of two islands of the northwest coast of Europe if you’re looking for it on a map.
Change the time to whatever works best to give us the maximum amount of daylight always, better all round for everything g from sports to feeling better, to going out and enjoying yourself after work, ect
@Mick Hannigan: Leave well alone ,fiddling with the clock wont give us any more daylight one way or another.
@Jointheclubtoo: Does that mean
A: Stay in GMT,
B: Stay in GMT+1 Summertime
C: Change Clocks twice a year like we do all the time.
@Brendan Mason: Leave the clocks in GMT all year. It will suit the kids as well.
@Brendan Mason: You’re probably right about that, GMT best represents our position on the planet. I happy enough the way they do it now though.
Move it 30 minutes in one direction and hen leave it there.
@OU812: I came to that conclusion about 5 seconds before seeing your comment…..if the entire world did this, we would all be sorted. Nice job.
If we all want to do everything an hour earlier, why don’t we just do everything an hour earlier? Why do we need this pantomime twice a year?
Every year the same question is asked… Every year people respond with the same answer… so clearly it’s a stupid question
If Ireland switched to Beijing time (+8 hours) it might be possible in February for Irish children and their parents to go sledding at midnight after heavy snowfall. German and Scandinavian tourists would flock here to enjoy the novelty.
Only a government could convince you that cutting a piece off the end of length of cloth and sewing it onto the other end, will give you a longer piece of cloth.
Definitely stop putting them forward, but we should keep the putting them back bit.
@David Knight: Will have the same time zone as Hawaii in 10 years time. New York 5 hours ahead of us. Wouldnt make sense.
@Brendan Mason: Oh. I didn’t think of that.
The MEP mentions we would have brighter evenings and better road safety as a result.
However, we are currently UTC+1 so if we scrapped the changes and confined ourselves UTC+0 we wouldn’t have these brighter evenings as she mentions.
Getting dark at 6 would translate to getting dark at 5(For those who don’t want to do the maths)
If we decided to stay UTC+1 we’d be an hour ahead of the UK whilst being further West of it. Bit stupid to be fair.
Pretty simple math. This person is an MEP?
We left it alone one year ( not sure when exactly ) and the children were going to school on the dark so we reverted back again to changing the clock the following year.
@John O’Neill: I checked it out and in 1969 Daylight Saving Time was not observed in Ireland.
@John O’Neill: back then children were walking to school, now most are delivered to the door.
@John O’Neill: Yes that is correct and my mother used to say it was horrible that year. Getting kids out in the dark. Roads icy still as there was no daylight thaw. There were kids trying to get to school buses in rural areas and there were some accidents. Kids are dropped nowadays but there are still plenty of kids trying to get to buses in rural or outer suburban areas so we do need to this k carefully.
@Sean: in their parents 172 D 12345 Volkswagen Toureg SUV.
@Catherine Sims: Yes I remember it going to school in a rural area and it was horrible. Dark freezing and dangerous.
@Sean: most are driven but if the mornings were dark then I am sure that those who normally walk to school would also be driven so you can imaging the extra traffic chaos that would ensue.
Do u want it bright at 3 in the morning in the summer while u are still in bed and dark an hour earlier in the evening? Then keep GMT.
Want it dark in the morning when the kids are going to school in the winter? Then keep BST.
The change makes perfect sense to me, I can never figure out why so many people are against it.
@Count Craicula: it’s still better then changing the clocks. How about moving the clocks 30 minutes and leave them alone.
You could say why doesn’t Australia have Christmas in June instead of December.
Spain is talking about realigning with us (it only changed in 1940 so Franco could collaborate better with his buddy Hitler). Makes sense as we’re in the same longitude range.
If it happened, would we be in the winter or summer time?
Spring forward, fall back. There’s an easy way to remember which way there changes go.
Within a few weeks of the clock change the daylight hours are not long enough and it is dark both in the morning and in the evening. So it makes little difference to change it and I would vote that we stop putting the clock forward and back. I have long argued for all countries in the world to use Universal Standard Time and instead adjust their 9-5 as required. So Japans morning might be 1800 hours and Australias might be 2200 for example.
I don’t think people realise the consequences of not doing it. Do you really want to be going to work or sending kids to school in pitch black darkness for the entire Winter? It was a disaster n Cyprus when they didn’t put the clocks back. Now they’re reverting back to daylight savings again.
second hand information from the journal-They are working overtime this time.
It’s getting late very early these days.
The question is valid but in this know-nothing atmosphere it withers in those who lack imagination. The first thing is the body clock which is tuned to the daily cycle so the immediate abrupt change is not quite like jet lag but the body does have to adjust to a new regime as our bodies respond to daylight and darkness. The abrupt change disguises the annual body clock which responds to the seasons and the general slowing down to winter mode, of course this change is often obscured in contemporary society by all the conveniences that make winter incidental such as artificial light and heat. It does have an adverse effect such as seasonal affective disorder however, judging from the groaning going on in the comments, few come to understand how our bodies are built around the motions of the Earth with all its affects.
Whatever about messing around with the clock twice a year, something needs to be done about the timing of Easter. It is ludicrous that in the 21st Century we still adhere to the decision made by a bunch of blokes around a table in 325CE to base the date of Easter on the phases of the moon.
@David Meredith: Erm…… it’s a religious festival you see so that’s why the religious guys get to call the shots on the timing.
@David Meredith:
Using your logic we should simply get rid of Easter altogether. Why are we still acknowledging a religious festival at all?
@Catherine Sims: They managed to decide when Christmas Day would be. Easter has all the hallmarks of a botched compromise.
@Nick Allen: Precisely
@David Meredith: None of you know your history in general of detail. Easter is determined by both the moon phase (full) and the Equinox (Northern orbital point) so the calendar correction to bring dates back in line with the Equinox and Solstice point by denominational Christianity opened up a research topic that is largely ignored even though it is brilliant.
After 4 circuits of the Earth the Sun as determined by the 4 year calendar system, you and your location doesn’t arrive back in the exact same orbital point at the end of February 29th from a starting point on March 1st four years earlier. The difference is small but adds up over the years and it was this uncorrected difference that amounted to 10 days that the Church dealt with in the late 16th century . It is a language like software language but seemingly few have the talent to speak or write it even though I find it easy and straightforward despite its intricate nature.
Keep it as it is. It was a stupid decision, makes us more depressed, those dark evenings… and then there’s getting up on chairs to change all my battery clocks on the walls, a pain in the ass. Leo please, Tick Tock leave our Clock.
Realistically, the only good part of changing the clocks is that we have daylight for children going to and from School! If they were not changed then it would be still dark at 9am(at least in December and January), the busiest time of the day, with children and the workforce on the road! School time is crazy enough at most schools without adding darkness to the mix!
An m e p has she nothing better to talk about
It’s crazy. That extra hour of daylight is fading my curtains. Get rid of it.
Can there be 4 options….. yes no I don’t know and most importantly, I don’t care!
Boris will do it in the UK as soon as he gets freedom.
We can follow then like we always do.
Every year we have this conversation, most people think the clocks should be left alone, and every year the opinion of the majority is ignored, so I ask is what is the point in having this discussion.
What the hell has it got to do with the EU? Can Ireland do anything without asking the Fatherland for permission? Pathetic.
If we change our clocks then the UK would have to do the same only leading to confusion … ok go ahead call me a old fashioned fool !
@karl: Dont mind Britain, They will be out of Europe in 2 years time. It might be no harm if we create a precedent on leaving the clocks fixed in either GMT OR GMT+1and stick to it. Europe might follow suit and get rid of this unnecessary madness twice a year.
Won’t somebody think of the badgers!!
Depressing and miserable
enough in Ireland in winter without making it darker sooner
Scrap Clocks .
We are too “PC” to change. It is like upping the speed limit. If someone gets injured they will blame the person who changed the rule.
Ah fCk off. Politicians and their exciting lives. Go and petition something meaningful. Useless Cnts the lot of them. Nothing like a dark evening , bowl of codel and a lighting fire. Feed kids less they wont be fat. Slow the Fck down and you wont crash. Light a candle if you dont like using lecky. Or get night vision goggles. Simples.
I work nights so makes no difference to me!
In reality too many industries have close operating ties to the UK. We will only ever change if or when they do so its out of our hands
How abortion t we settle this once and for all by putting the clocks back by 30 minutes once and for all and never worrying about it again?
*about*
Damn you spell-check!
Twice a year they ask the same bloody question. Just do it or don’t…..
Leave it alone for the crack
Same stupid question again this year.
Why does it take twice as long for the clocks to change back after dec 21……surely early feb is time enough to bring the hour forward again…..
Let’s meet in the middle and move it half an hour back and leave it at that … :)
It gets late much earlier when the clock goes back. So leave time alone.
Leave them the way they are now, it would leavekm it safer for every one
Instead of an hour forward and an hour back, just change it half an hour and leave it at that. Who said it had to be a full hour?
@Míleata Watch Co: It is a type of art to enjoy where timekeeping meets the cyclical motions of the Earth that create human devised timekeeping so reading some of the comments can be dismaying. Imagine people going out of their way to complain about the intricate engineering that goes into a computer or under the hood of a car and people will have an idea how this topic is treated even though it calls into attention the body’s response to the motions of our home planet. People shouldn’t behave like rednecks because it is an issue thing to do with this great human heritage with its roots in remote antiquity but unfortunately they do.
have your say