The health watchdog has noted non-compliance across five areas of the Health Act 2007, including with fire precautions, at a South Kerry nursing home.
The Health Information and Quality Authority carried out an unannounced inspection at Kenmare Nursing Home at Killaha East, in December last year.
Inspectors found adequate precautions hadn’t been taken to ensure residents were protected from the risk of a fire.
HIQA inspected 18 areas and found Kenmare Nursing Home was compliant in 11 areas, substantially compliant in two and non-compliant in five areas.
It was non-compliant in staffing as there wasn’t sufficient staff resources at night to enable residents to be evacuated safely in a timely manner in the event of a fire.
Inspectors also found improvements were required in relation to the identification and management of fire safety risks in the centre, adding one area of the building, with four bedrooms, was found to present a risk to residents on the day of the inspection.
Kenmare Nursing Home was also non-compliant with regards infection control, in governance and management and premises categories.
The overall feedback from residents and relatives was that Kenmare Nursing Home was a nice place to live with kind and caring staff and residents enjoyed social activities.
Kenmare Nursing Home provided assurances that immediate action would be taken to address the risks identified during the inspection, which include having a third member of staff rostered on at night to ensure the safe evacuation of residents should a fire occur.
The full report can be seen here:
https://www.hiqa.ie/system/files?file=inspectionreports/239-kenmare-nursing-home-15-december-2021.pdf
