HIQA has released its annual overview of public and private nursing homes, finding there were 3,436 non-compliances registered in 2014.

HIQA received 5,485 legally-required notifications of 'certain adverse events in nursing homes in 2014'. This figure is a 2.2% increase on 2013, when 5,362 were recorded.

There were 625 notifications in relation to unexpected deaths in 2014, and 357 notifications of suspected or confirmed abuse of a resident. Over the course of the year there were four events of a member of staff at a centre being subject of review by a professional body.

The authority had to issue 470 corrective actions in relation to end-of-life care and food and nutrition.

The report finds that “While most centres had an acceptable level of overall compliance with the regulations and the National Standards for Residential Care Settings for Older People in Ireland, many needed to improve their individualised person-centred care planning and how that care is delivered.”

Centres also need to make “Improvements in their approach to risk assessment and risk management were also required.“

Procedures to ensure that residents did not experience poor nutrition or hydration were not always adequately followed. In 11 centres out of 195 centres inspected on this theme, residents at nutritional risk did not have an adequate nutritional care plan in place.

Mary Dunnion, HIQA’s Director of Regulation, said the authority “found examples of good care, such as dedicated person-centred plans for residents at end of life” but “compliance data on safeguarding vulnerable older people indicates a need within the sector to better understand how to safeguard dependent older persons in their care.”

Tadhg Daly, CEO of Nursing Homes Ireland, told Lunchtime he believes the report is “very positive”, as it shows the “sector is characterised by high levels of compliance” in reporting incidents to HIQA.

Justin Moran, Head of Advocay at Age Action Ireland agrees that the report “shows the strength of a robust system of monitoring”, but was less positive on the findings.

He pointed to “more than 4000 notifications of serious injuries in nursing homes in 2014. That’s more than 10 every day,” as a particularly worrying statistic.

Listen below to the Lunchtime interview with Tadhg Daly, CEO of Nursing Homes Ireland and Justin Moran, Head of Advocay at Age Action Ireland