Ms Carol Grogan:

What happens in that case is that the providers are afforded an opportunity to make a representation. They have 28 days to respond to a proposed decision and then 28 days to appeal the decision to the District Court. In the event that they do not appeal or that the decision is upheld, the HSE takes over the centre pending alternative arrangements. In the case of that nursing home, the HSE is supporting residents to find alternative accommodation. There are still 21 residents in the centre. In the case of disability services, it sometimes works with a new provider to take over the running of a centre. That happened recently. One of the other areas in the amendment of the health Act, which will be useful, is shortening the timeframes. If I make a decision to put a condition on registration, the decision does not take effect during the 28 days and, if it is appealed to the District Court, while the case is ongoing, which can put residents at risk. It is proposed to shorten the timeframe to 14 days. In addition, it is proposed to give an additional power to me to issue a compliance notice to providers, which in effect would be a statutory warning. We use non-statutory warnings to good effect because the vast majority of providers in both disability and older persons services provide a very good, high-level of quality care. When we are in escalation we try to do it proportionately. We try to work with providers and we take that step when providers do not have the capacity to take action to address safety risks.