I propose to take Questions Nos. 1242 and 1243 together.
Under the Health Act 2007 statutory responsibility is given to the Chief Inspector of Social Services, part of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) for inspecting and registering categories of designated centres, including nursing homes for older people. This system of registration and inspection commenced on 1 July, 2009. While some centres have decided to close for various reasons since the introduction of this regime, only five centres have been closed by HIQA pursuant to Section 59 or Section 60 of the Health Act 2007. The information requested by the Deputy is set out in the following table:
Year
|
Number of Inspections
|
Number of designated centres foreclosed by HIQA
|
2009
|
201
|
0
|
2010
|
809
|
2
|
2011
|
768
|
3
|