Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am here to speak on behalf of family members regarding the CareChoice nursing home in Ballynoe in County Cork. I wish to refer to some of the correspondence I have received and then the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, will know exactly where I am coming from and how frustrated the families are. I was told that the following are some of the concerns families have regarding the CareChoice nursing home in Ballynoe in County Cork. During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, it was stated that this home was well managed in respect of infection control as well as the maintaining of communication. The provision of updates to family members was also very good. Families, however, have concerns regarding how this nursing home in Ballynoe was managed from Monday, 14 December 2020. Many of these concerns are reflected in what has been expressed by other families who lost loved ones in this and other nursing homes in the county.

Concern has been expressed as to why, on Friday, 14 December 2020, the director of nursing left her position, two senior clinical nurses left their positions and the assistant director of nursing also stepped down from her position in this nursing home. There were also misgivings regarding the residents having been moved out of their rooms without families being aware of this development. Some residents were moved several times. To this day, some families do not even know what room or part of the nursing home their loved ones died in. Equally, disquiet has also been expressed that some families were informed that their loved ones had tested positive for Covid-19 while others were not. Some found this out accidentally from a carer during a phone call, while others only found out when their loved ones died. Some families also have questions as to why their loved ones' remains were not released to the funeral home until two days after their deaths. In addition, some of the families are also concerned about the lack of communication, phone calls not having been answered, promised phone calls having not been received from the director of nursing and that medical updates on their loved ones were all similar and standard updates. In one case, a family member was given a medical update by the director of nursing on another resident and not on their family member.

More concerns were raised about the obvious lack of staff from Sunday, 31 January 2021, and about the impact this had on the care and well-being of the residents. The families were also extremely concerned, shocked and upset by what was revealed by the whistle-blowers at a later date on the "RTÉ Investigates" programme. Major concerns were also expressed regarding how residents were cared for. Families also learned that on Tuesday, 2 February 2021, a staff member contacted HSE and the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, begging for help and for someone to come and save the residents. No one came in and lives were lost that could have been saved with the proper help. This plea for help should have set alarm bells ringing, but the HSE handled this situation by emailing the home.

Before staff made this call, there were five deaths. On Tuesday, 2 February 2021, the day of the call for help, there were three deaths. After this date, there were a further 19 deaths in the home. There was a total of 27 deaths, 22 of which were over a 12-day period between 31 January and 11 February 2021.

The lack of response and help from the Government has forced families to go to the courts to get access to their late family members' records which the nursing homes are refusing access to, and also to get this Government to put in place a public inquiry that is needed into these deaths. There is concern that private nursing homes do not come under the Freedom of Information Acts and that private nursing homes are a law unto themselves in regards to accountability. A HIQA report request by the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Butler, has caused concern and upset to families, as when the families saw a copy under the Freedom of Information Acts it was heavily redacted. The question is, "Why?" What is being held back from the families and what has been covered up?

These are the concerns of some family members. They have not got accountability. They have not got the responses. What they are looking for is an independent public inquiry, specifically, on Ballynoe nursing home or the nursing homes in east Cork. I await the Minister of State's response.

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