Home told to act after inspections

A Derry care home has been closed to new admissions after checks uncovered several failings, including patients not being given their prescribed medications plus out of date medical products still in use.
Owen Mor Nursing home, Culmore Road.Owen Mor Nursing home, Culmore Road.
Owen Mor Nursing home, Culmore Road.

The Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) has highlighted a number of issues relating to patient care, medication, staff training and record keeping at Owen Mor Nursing Home on Derry’s Culmore Road.

Four failure to comply notices were issued this week highlighted a number of actions required by management at the 81-person home.

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Owen Mor now has until June 26, 2019, to make sure it complies with the list of recommendations, but its owners said they were confident that all issues identified will be rectified “much sooner.”

An inspection on May 5 found that care records didn’t accurately reflect the care needs of patients and contained conflicting information which “had the potential to compromise the delivery of safe and effective care.”

At an unannounced medicines and management inspection three days earlier on May 2, the inspectors found that there were patients who had not received their medicines as prescribed. “This is essential to ensure that their health and welfare is not being compromised and the care practices are safe,” the report stated.

It also found that four of the five areas for improvement identified at the last medicines management inspection had not been effectively addressed.

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It states: “There continued to be instances where patients did not have a continuous supply of their medicines and these had not been reported to the manager or RQIA as a notifiable incident.

“One patient had not received nine doses of one prescribed medicine between February 25 and March 1 2019 and six doses of another medicine between April 17 and April 18 2019. Another patient had not received two doses of their prescribed medicine between May 1 and May 2.”

The same inspection also involved a review of a sample of medicines, which uncovered discrepancies indicating that patients had not received their prescribed doses, while the management of eye preparations was considered “poor,” with four eye drop containers out of date but still in use and two being stored at the wrong temperature.

The RQIA found that the two inspections in early May had raised concerns regarding staff knowledge and understanding of their professional responsibility and accountability.

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In a statement a spokesperson for the RQIA, said: “During unannounced RQIA medicines management and care inspections at Owen Mor Care Centre on Thursday, May 2 and Sunday, May 5 , we identified concerns in relation to care recording, medicines management, staffing and governance arrangements at the home.

“As a result, this week, RQIA held an enforcement meeting with the management of the home to discuss the actions required to address our serious concerns, and we have issued four notices of failure to comply with Nursing Homes regulations to Owen Mor.

“During this time RQIA has also been working closely with the Western Trust –which commissions care from this home and theTrust has ceased further admissions to Owen Mor while this enforcement action remains ongoing.

“The safety and wellbeing of everyone living at Owen Mor, or receiving respite care at the home, is of paramount importance to RQIA, and we continue to monitor this service through our inspection and regulatory activities.”

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Meanwhile, Liam McDonald, spokesperson for East Eden Ltd, owners of Owen Mor Nursing Home, said: “Subsequent to recent RQIA inspections of Owen Mor Private Nursing Home, issues around compliancy have been identified. This has resulted in a meeting between RQIA and Owen Mor management on May 13, 2019. A failure to comply notice has been issued and accepted by Owen Mor management. An action plan between the two parties has also been agreed and has already been implemented.

“Owen Mor is assiduously working in tandem with the Trust to achieve full compliance within six weeks as agreed by RQIA.

“Owen Mor Management is confident that all issues identified will be rectified much sooner,” concluded Mr. McDonald.

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