St Loman’s rapped for fall in compliance in 2021

St Loman’s Hospital has received a rap on the knuckles from the Mental Health Commission for failures in “significant areas” of safe practice.

An 86-page report on the hospital was one of three hospital reports released on Wednesday last, the other two being for a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) centre at Merlin Park in Galway and the Acute Mental Health Unit in Cork University Hospital.

All three suffered slippage from the “high overall” compliance rates achieved in 2021. In Mullingar’s case, the slippage was of 9 percent, the lowest of the three.

“Our regulatory team have worked with these approved centres over the past number of months putting corrective and preventative action plans in place so non-compliances can be addressed and conditions for residents improved,” the inspector of mental health services, Dr Susan Finnerty said as the reports were released.

Two units

At the time of the inspection, there were 28 residents occupying the 41 bed spaces provided between the Admissions unit and St Edna’s ward at St Loman’s. Sixteen of the residents had been there for more than six months.

The inspection found the centre to be non-compliant with three conditions attached to the registration of the centre – but it was not found to be in breach of these three regulations.

Two of the regulations concerned the premises, including ligature minimisation and maintenance to ensure the safety and needs of residents were met. The third regulation related to ensuring healthcare professionals working at the centre were up to date on mandatory training.

In total, the centre received nine non-compliances; four classified as high risk, four as moderate risk, and one as low risk.

The centre was found to be high risk non-compliant in regards to identification of residents’ medication, staffing, use of seclusion, and consent to treatment.

In regards to the regulation on identification of medication, some records were not legible and medication administered to a resident was not recorded.

The commission reported that as an immediate corrective action, an emergency review was carried out on the day of inspection by the area director of nursing to ensure all records were legible and identifiable with two or more unique identifiers.

The centre received a high risk non-compliance for the rule on seclusion because the seclusion of one resident was not in rare and exceptional circumstances and was not in the best interests of the resident.

Therapeutic activities were found to be appropriate for the needs of residents and facilities mostly respected residents’ privacy and dignity.

Completed risk assessments showed a low level of risk at the centre and staff numbers and skill levels were sufficient to meet resident needs. However, residents found being confined to their suites during Covid-19 outbreaks difficult but praised the staff for how it was managed. All residents interviewed knew who their care team was and many stated that they saw their doctor and the team two or three times a week.