Inspection finds Laois nursing home non compliant in eight of nine categories

A Laois nursing home was found to be non compliant in eight of nine categories during an unannounced inspection last April. 

The purpose-built Droimnin Nursing Home in Stradbally can accommodate 70 adult residents. It was subject to an unannounced inspection while there were 69 residents at the facility on April 8, 2025. 

Two Health Information and Quality Authority(HIQA) Inspectors visited the facility and discovered non compliance in a number of categories. 

The Inspectors said residents at the home gave them “mixed feedback” during their Inspection. 

“Inspectors reviewed unsolicited information received by the Chief Inspector. The information received pertained to concerns regarding the governance and management of the centre, the quality of care provided to residents including social care, the supervision of staff and the management of complaints. This information was found to be fully substantiated on this inspection,” the report noted. 

It said that: “While many residents complimented the staff as kind and caring individuals, concerns were raised about the availability of staff and the timeliness of support with their care needs. Several residents expressed dissatisfaction with the provision of meaningful activities and the level of attentiveness from staff, which they attributed to staff being busy.” 

One resident said they refrained from using their call bell in recognition of how busy staff were. Another resident emphasised how good the staff were but said they couldn’t get their morning care that morning due to a lack of staff. 

“In one instance, Inspectors had to request that a staff member come to the ground floor communal area to assist a resident who required assistance,” the report noted. 

“Throughout the morning, inspectors observed a number of residents being assisted by staff with their mobility care needs. Interactions were observed to be kind and person-centred, and it was evident that staff were familiar with the residents and understood their individual care needs well,” they noted. 

“On the day of inspection, Inspectors found that the staffing levels and skill mix were not sufficient to meet the residents’ overall needs, as some staff were frequently redeployed from their assigned roles. This impacted the delivery of key aspects of care and support, including social and recreational activities. Inspectors observed residents experiencing prolonged waits for assistance with their morning care and being frequently left unsupervised in communal areas, where they were observed to be waiting for staff and assistance,” the report noted. 

Inspectors said all staff were facilitated to attend training appropriate to their role, such as fire safety, safeguarding of vulnerable people, and infection prevention and control. However, the provider had not assessed the effectiveness of all the training provided to staff. 

The Inspectors reported that: “Residents told inspectors that their rights were not always upheld, including limited choice around their daily routines such as when to get up from bed or to shower. Residents were not always supervised in communal areas and call bells were not within reach for some residents, leaving them unable to request help when needed. This posed a risk to their safety and did not uphold their dignity.” 

The inspectors found the nursing home was non compliant in relation to staffing. “The provider had failed to ensure that there were sufficient staffing levels in the centre to meet the assessed needs of the residents, or for the size and layout of the centre,” they stated.

In response to the reported non compliance in staffing, Droimnin Nursing Home said they are taking a number of measures including a staffing review, aligning rosters and actively recruiting new staff. They also introduced a new system for gathering resident feedback. 

“Despite being identified on a previous inspection, the management systems in place to recognise and respond to complaints did not ensure that complaints and concerns were acted upon in a timely manner. For example, A complaint received in January 2025 in relation to the care and treatment of a resident was not managed in line with the centre's own policy or the requirements of the regulations,” the report noted. 

In reply,  the home said they would carry out a full review of complaints. “All open or partially addressed complaints will be retrospectively reviewed, with followup actions completed and documented. This will be completed by June 13th,” the home said.   

The report found the nursing home non compliant in relation to Complaints Procedure,  Training and Staff Development, Record keeping, Governance and Management, Individual Assessment and Care Plan, Healthcare, Resident’s rights and it was substantially compliant in relation to Protection.

In each of the categories, the Droimnin Nursing Home detailed an extensive range of actions it was taking in order to rectify each of the issues identified. Drominin Nursing Home was committed to carrying out all of the necessary actions to bring the nursing home into compliance by mid June.  The full report is available here on the HIQA website.

HIQA published 51 Inspection reports from nursing homes around the country on Tuesday. Of these six were non-compliant with four or more regulations. “Where non-compliance with the regulations was identified, providers were required to submit compliance plans to demonstrate how they will make improvements and come into compliance with the regulations,” HIQA stated.

In reponse to the report, a spokesperson for Droimnin Nursing Home said: “As a leading care home, our foremost commitment has always been to deliver the highest standards of care expected by our residents and their families. We were therefore disappointed that certain aspects of our administration let us down - particularly in light of our history of consistently positive reports. However, as noted in the HIQA inspection, these issues never compromised the quality of care we provide.

Our own internal audit, conducted prior to the inspection, had already identified a dip in some administrative procedures. We were actively addressing these at the time, and this was fully acknowledged in the latest inspection. The areas of non-compliance were specifically linked to the onboarding and training of new staff members - an issue which has since been fully resolved.

We remain dedicated to continuous improvement and ensuring that both our care and administrative practices reflect the trust placed in us by our residents and their families.”