Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 23 March 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Regulation of Nursing Homes and Development of a New Model of Care for Older People: Discussion

Photo of David CullinaneDavid Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is an extraordinary weakness in the system. Mr. Quinn stated at the start that we shone a spotlight on what happened in nursing homes generally. He quite rightly says that we need a new comprehensive framework of social care and adult safeguarding has to be part of that.

Can I ask the HSE how we have a system where the regulator cannot investigate an individual complaint of abuse or neglect, and where adult safeguarding teams, including social workers, do not have the power to initiate an examination or an investigation? In this committee and indeed in the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response, we dealt with several terrible cases of abuse and neglect. Thankfully, they were small in number. The vast majority of nursing homes provided the highest levels of care but there have been cases of neglect and cases of abuse. It strikes me as extraordinary that we still do not have those powers. Can I ask the HSE why that is the case? Can Dr. MacLellan address that point?

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