Agency staff at St. Mary's were not vetted

The Health Service Executive has taken steps to ensure that care services at the St. Mary’s Care Centre, Mullingar have been brought up to speed with statutory requirements, following a report in April which revealed that agency staff working at the centre had not been Garda vetted.A report by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), lodged earlier this year, found that following a scheduled inspection in September of last year, an action plan identifying eight areas for improvement had been “partially completed” by the time a follow-up inspection took place on April 7 of this year.“Inspectors found that although local efforts had been made to address some areas, such as the provision of activities, on-call cover, staffing levels and skill mix, these were inadequate in fully meeting the needs of the residents,” the April 2010 report read.The inspectors found that up to and including December 2009, a total of eleven staff positions at the elderly care facility had not been replaced, while a further seven staff planned to retire in 2010.. As a result, agency staff were used “on a continuous basis” but the inspectors found no documentary evidence that agency staff had been Garda vetted, or trained in elder abuse recognition and prevention.They also criticised fire safety and risk management as being “of an inadequate standard”, but welcomed news that construction has commenced on a new premises.A new, nineteen point action plan was set down, to which the HSE replied on June 4 of this year.They said that fire safety has been reviewed, and a comprehensive risk management/missing persons policy put in place, as well as a centre-specific safety statements and risk register.By June 2010, 127 staff at the centre (95 percent of the roster) were reported to have submitted their details for Garda vetting.Compliance with other points set down by HIQA are either in place or in progress, the HSE said.In the initial report in September of last year, inspectors described the St. Paul’s and St. Monica’s units at St. Mary’s as “not fit for purpose”, with many parts of the building “poorly maintained”; however, they cited the positive words which residents and relatives had for the staff at the facility.“I would trust them with my life,” one resident was quoted as saying of the staff, in the initial report.