Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 10 September 2020

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response

Examination of HIQA Report on the Impact of Covid-19 on Nursing Homes in Ireland

Photo of Cormac DevlinCormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I thank our witnesses for their report and welcome them before the committee. The report contains 86 recommendations, 24 of which are relevant to HIQA. HIQA has meetings with the Department. I presume that is happening on an ongoing basis. How often are those meetings?

I will speak in particular about Ms Dunnion's brief. There are 576 registered nursing homes in Ireland, of which 189 were inspected, if I am reading the report correctly, and there were also 2,851 phone inspections. How many inspections of all types of facilities are carried out under HIQA? Has the number of inspections increased or decreased in the light of Covid?

In anticipation of a second wave, what would HIQA recommend and do differently, given that it has some time to plan this time around?