To consider a request for a representative of Northern Ireland Patient Voice and of the Dunmurry Manor families’ group to address the Council in relation to the motion on Dunmurry Manor Care Home being proposed by Councillor Heading.
Minutes:
The Chief Executive reported that Mr. Aidan Hanna, representing Northern Ireland Patient Voice, together with Ms. Maria Scott of the Dunmurry Manor families’ group, had sought approval to address the Council in advance of the motion on the Dunmurry Manor Care Home which Councillor Heading was due to propose later in the meeting.
The Council agreed to receive the representatives and they were welcomed to the meeting.
Mr. Hanna informed the Council that Northern Ireland Patient Voice had, for many years, been campaigning for improved standards of care in nursing homes and that it represented families and patients in the complaints process and in care reviews. The group had initially been made aware of issues surrounding the Dunmurry Manor Care Home early in 2016, which he stressed was subsequent to the publication in 2014 of a report into the operation of the Cherry Tree House care home in Carrickfergus and the Commissioner for Older People raising concerns in 2015 with the Assembly’s Health Committee around the poor standards of care and safety in a number of nursing homes.
He reported that Northern Ireland Patient Voice had viewed inspection reports for the Dunmurry Manor Care Home on the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority’s website, which had immediately given it cause for concern. Those reports had identified serious issues and had indicated clearly that the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust had been raising concerns only a few months after the home had opened in 2014. He pointed out that families had not been made aware of the care home’s poor performance when selecting a place for their family member and that it was the view of Northern Ireland Patient Voice that there had existed sufficient evidence in 2016 for the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority to close the facility. He added that the report on the review of the Cherry Tree House care home should have led to a significant improvement in standards of care across all nursing homes and drew the Council’s attention to the fact that the owners of the Dunmurry Manor Care Home had since been subject to various types of enforcement action in respect of other care homes which they operated across Northern Ireland. Mr. Hanna concluded by inviting the Council to support Councillor Heading’s motion.
Ms. Scott informed the Members that her grandmother, Mrs. Annie McCourt, had entered the Dunmurry Manor Care Home in early 2016. Her family had selected the home in good faith and had been oblivious to the fact that the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority had, in the previous year, identified twenty-six areas for improvement and had met with the owners to highlight its concerns. Had the family been aware of them, she argued, the neglect and poor care which Mrs. McCourt had experienced would have been avoided.
She pointed out that her family had not been invited to discuss her grandmother’s requirements prior to her admission to the care home and that a subsequent review meeting had not taken place due to a shortage of staff. She stressed that her family had continuously raised issues around Mrs. McCourt’s general standard of care and outlined the circumstances surrounding her fall in June, 2016, which had led to her being hospitalised. Her grandmother had not returned to the Dunmurry Manor Care home and had died four months later.
Ms. Scott added that the Dunmurry Manor families’ group was working to ensure that the poor standards experienced within the Dunmurry Manor Care Home would not be replicated elsewhere and that it was campaigning for a change in policy to allow for closed circuit television to be installed in entrance halls, corridors and all communal areas, with a view to safeguarding residents.
The Lord Mayor thanked Mr. Hanna and Ms. Scott.
The Council noted the information which had been provided and that Members would have an opportunity to discuss the matter later in the meeting.