Galway Bay newsroom - An inspection at St Brendan's Community Nursing Unit in Loughrea has found that overall governance, infection control, risk management and fire safety precautions were poorly managed.
The Health Information and Quality Authority inspection took place at the HSE-run Lake Road facility in September.
The inspection was triggered following information received from the registered provider that the centre would re-open to admissions following suspension of same due to an action plan developed to manage the contamination of the water supply with Legionella.
The report stated that the registered provider has failed to ensure a number of areas.
This include that the procedures, consistent with the standards for the prevention and control of health care associated infections, were implemented by staff and that there was sufficient staff employed in the designated centre to meet the assessed needs of the residents.
It was also stated that there was inadequate oversight of the controls and resources in place to manage identified risk in the management of infection control, including the contamination of the water supply with legionella, and the risks associated with the high level of agency staff.
On the day of the inspection, staff reported a high rate of dependency on agency staff with rosters evidencing 900 hours of agency staff per week on a regular basis.
A consequence of such a reliance on agency staff was that not all staff knew the residents or were knowledgeable about important issues such as infection control and fire safety.
On the day of inspection, 82 residents were accommodated in the centre, with two residents in hospital.
The assessed level of dependencies of the residents were 39 maximum, 21 high, 12 medium and 12 low.
Significant failures were observed by the inspectors in the areas of fire safety management, risk management and infection control.
The centre was found to be non-compliant in the areas of staffing, training and staff development, governance and management, risk management, infection control and fire precautions.
Compliance was found in five areas including complaints procedure and residents' rights.
Residents who communicated with the inspectors did not voice any complaints about their treatment or their care.
