Droimnín Nursing Home set to lose its licence
Droimnín Nursing Home in Stradbally. File image
DROIMNÍN Nursing Home in Stradbally is expected to lose its operating licence today, at an adjourned court hearing regarding conditions at the facility.
The move follows a series of HIQA inspections that found ‘reasonable grounds of risks to life or serious risk’ to residents at the private home.
In a letter to staff seen by the , Droimnín operators say they expect their registration to be cancelled today, with the HSE set to take over the facility which has more than 40 residents.
HIQA made a court application for cancellation of the licence last autumn, after its chief inspector found there were ‘reasonable grounds of risks to life or serious risk to the health and welfare of its residents’.
An investigation was launched by HIQA after the unexpected death of a woman in her 80s last March, while subsequent inspection reports found that residents felt their rights were not always upheld.
At a hearing in Portlaoise District Court last October, a judge asked both HIQA and Droimnin Nursing Home to resolve outstanding issues through mediation. The matter was adjourned until today’s sitting of Tullamore District Court.
The healthcare watchdog failed the home in eight out of nine regulation areas in its latest report.
It is expected that the HSE will take over on an interim basis, pending a decision on the long-term operation of the facility.
In its application, which was brought under Section 59 of the Health Act 2007 last September, Alison Fynes SC for HIQA said it had “reasonable grounds of risks to life or serious risk to the health and welfare of residents” at Droimnín Nursing Home, just outside Stradbally.
At an adjourned hearing in October, defending barrister Ronan Kennedy SC asked for time to take instructions from the nursing home owners and to prepare their case which, if proven, would have “very significant consequences, not only for the registered provider but also for the 49 residents who treat it as their home”.
The court was told that it was only the fourth time HIQA had made such an urgent application in relation to a nursing home since 2016 and it was “not an application that is brought lightly”.
