Statement by
Maurice Manning, President of the Irish Human Rights Commission
The Human Rights Commission is deeply concerned at some of the issues raised in Monday’s Prime Time programme. The Human Rights Commission from its inception has indicated its concern that the elderly, especially those in long stay care may be particularly vulnerable to human rights abuses.
The Commission draws attention to its publication in November 2002 entitled ‘Older People in Long Stay Care’. This report was carried widely in the media at the time and was sent to the Department of Health and Children, which contested some of its observations.
In its Report the Commission was particularly concerned by the system of inspection of private nursing homes. From its analysis, the Commission noted:
‘inspections are rarely, if ever, carried out at night; the inspection is largely concerned with the physical conditions and rarely addresses what might be termed broad quality of life or social gain issues; the Health Boards take very few prosecutions and almost never close down a nursing home. The sort of breaches of the law which were regularly mentioned in the reports included the absence of contracts of care, inadequate records of medication and the use of restraint, insufficient arrangements for privacy and the absence of safety equipment.’
The Commission also drew attention in its Report to a number of other factors, especially the absence of a statutory independent complaints and appeals procedure within the health service. It noted that there was no organised comprehensive advocacy service for vulnerable older people in care. It noted too that there was no provision for third party complaints to be heard.
The Commission welcomes the announcement of Minister of State Seán Power that legislation to establish an independent inspectorate is at an advanced stage.
The Commission noted in its Report that there was no specific legislation dealing with the quality of Health Board long stay care places for older people within the public sector. It noted that the Health Boards, as providers, are not subject to any external assessment, while they are the inspectors of the private sector providers. It presumes the proposed inspectorate legislation will include all providers, public and private within its remit.
The Commission also drew attention to the fact that there was very little up-to-date published information available on the quality of care in either public or private long stay care. It noted that the publicly available information on access and admission to public care is inadequate and, that there was virtually no published information available on the quality of care being provided. It did acknowledge that while the report of inspections of private nursing homes gave considerable information on private nursing homes, there have been no systematic analyses of these reports.
The Commission also drew attention to a number of human rights issues, which it believes are intrinsic to any discussion of the future of older people in long stay care. The Commission noted that the following human rights issues need to be addressed:
The adequacy of measures to ensure equality of treatment between older people in long term care and those being cared for at home and between those in public care and in private care;
The lack of clarity of entitlement;
The inadequate provision of public care, the level of reliance on private care;
The adequacy of measures to ensure equality and equity in the allocation of available places, in the assessment of need, in the manner in which the means test is applied;
The adequacy of mechanisms for the protection of vulnerable older people (this is not restricted to older people in long stay care);
The incidence of inhuman or degrading treatment in the care and/or the lack of respect for human dignity;
The right to an effective remedy and the absence of adequate complaints and appeals procedures;
The right to participate in decision-making.
The full text of the Commission’s Observations is available on our website www.ihrc.ie
A spokesperson from the Commission is available for comment.
For further information, please contact:
Mary Ruddy
Senior Human Rights Awareness Officer
Irish Human Rights Commission.
Jervis House,
Jervis Street,
Dublin 1.
Tel. 01 8589 601
Mobile: 087 2400695
E-mail: info@ihrc.ie
Website : http://www.ihrc.ie