NI care home system needs to be reviewed and overhauled: Campaigner

Julieann McNally, a leading figure in the Care Home Advice and Support NI (CHASNI) support group, was speaking after it was revealed that the Belfast Trust is now opening an investigation into Clifton Nursing Home.

Last month, the Department of Health announced it was moving residents out of Clifton Nursing Home following a series of failed inspections.

The Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) identified repeated failures to manage infection control amid the coronavirus pandemic.

But a deal was reached between the home’s operators, a company known as Runwood Homes, and another firm known as Healthcare Ireland that means residents no longer need to be forced from their homes.

The agreement means Healthcare Ireland has now assumed management of the home for an “interim” period.

But Clifton Nursing Home represents the latest in a succession of care scandals at homes operated by Runwood in recent years.

Health Minister Robin Swann has now suggested there needs to be more “accountability” when care home companies repeatedly fall short of minimum standards across multiple homes.

On Tuesday he confirmed that a review of the way care homes are regulated in Northern Ireland is now under way.

“A review of regulation is ongoing and is of crucial importance,” he said.

“Under the existing legislative framework, care homes are registered and regulated as independent entities. I am keen to explore ways of strengthening accountability when care home providers repeatedly fall short of regulatory standards across a number of different homes under their control.”

Ms McNally, who spearheaded a campaign for an investigation into failings at another Runwood home – Dunmurry Manor on the outskirts of Belfast – that resulted in a damning report by the Older People’s Commissioner Eddie Lynch in 2018, said the latest problems at Clifton Nursing Home are symptomatic of wider issues in the sector.

“The whole system is not working,” she said. “There needs to be an entire system review into the regulation, the contracts, the role of the trusts, and so on and so forth.”

In 2017, the RQIA moved to shut down a Runwood home in Enniskillen – Ashbrooke Care Home – following an inspection. The home has since been reopened by Runwood under a new name. Dunmurry Manor has also been given a new name by Runwood.

Ms McNally added: “Yes, this is Runwood Homes yet again with Clifton Nursing Home, but this could just as easily be replicated by other providers.”