Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 10 March 2021
840. Deputy Johnny Mythen asked the Minister for Health the oversight and complaint mechanism available to families for reporting non-compliance with nursing home visiting guidelines during the Covid-19 pandemic; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12879/21]
View answerI would like to thank the Deputy for highlighting this issue.
Nursing home providers are ultimately responsible for the safe care of their residents. Under Regulation 11 of the Health Act 2007 (Care and Welfare of Residents in Designated Centres for Older People) Regulations 2013 it is the legal responsibility of each registered provider to make arrangements for a resident to receive visitors, having regard to any risks that may present for the resident or other residents. Public health guidance has been developed in order to assist and support providers in this regard.
Registered providers, (public, voluntary and private) are obliged to provide an accessible and effective complaints procedure. The Office of the Ombudsman can examine complaints about the actions of a range of public bodies and, from 24 August 2015, complaints relating to the administrative actions of private nursing homes. The Office of the Ombudsman normally only deals with a complaint once the individual has already gone through the complaint’s procedure of the private nursing home concerned.
The Ombudsman may be contacted at:
Office of the Ombudsman, 18 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2, Tel. (01) 639 5600 / Lo-call (1890) 22 30 30 and via e-mail at ombudsman@ombudsman.gov.ie (website is www.ombudsman.ie).
Separately, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) welcomes information about designated centres for dependent persons, reviews all information about services received and evaluates it against the regulations and standards.
Concerns can be communicated to:
Phone: 021 240 9646
E-mail: concerns@hiqa.ie
Postal Address: HIQA, George’s Court, Smithfield, Dublin 7, D07 E98Y
As a regulator HIQA has no legal role in examining individual complaints, however, the Authority does take into account all information it receives, including complaints from the public, when carrying out inspections and this range of information informs a risk-based approach to regulation.
