Residents move from 'unsafe and unsuitable' Donegal home – eight years on

Residents at a community group home in Falcarragh deemed eight years ago to be 'unsafe and unsuitable' were only moved to temporary accommodation last week.

Donegal Live understands that residents of St Martin's House were relocated last Friday after the latest inspection by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) cited several areas of grave concern.

A HIQA inspector found that the governance and management arrangements in place in St Martin’s “were not effective in ensuring this service was safe or suitable to the assessed needs of the residents”.

Residents, who have a diverse range of high support needs, were due to have been moved to new accommodation by 2023.

St Martin's House is managed by the HSE, who have said that some actions have been taken place to address the issues highlighted in a damning report.

Residents have now been relocated on an interim basis. A new accommodation is being built and the HSE say that the relocation to an original replacement accommodation was significantly delayed due to “building development issues” that were beyond its control

A HIQA inspector visited the three-bedroom detached bungalow, St Martin's House, on April 9, 2024.

At the time, four adults with disabilities were being provided with residential care at the facility in two single rooms and one double room.

The inspector highlighted “significant concerns” in areas of the safeguarding and protection of residents; meeting the residents' healthcare needs; the management of behaviours of concern; risk management and fire safety arrangements.

This inspection came eight years after it was recognised in 2016 that the centre in question “was not suitable for the needs of the residents living there”.

In 2022, it was stated that the provision of services at the centre was to cease by May, 2023 as an alternative house was identified.

However, despite the new premises being renovated and registered as a designated centre, residents stayed at the existing accommodation until earlier this month.

“The delay in the transition to the new house clearly impacted on the residents as they continued to live in unsuitable living accommodation,” the HIQA inspector said.

A resident who used a wheelchair and had a single occupancy room was required to pass through the room of others in order to shower.

The kitchen, dining room, utility room and back door were not freely accessible to wheelchair users, with furniture having to be moved in order for a wheelchair to enter some of the rooms; something that proved a fire safety concern.

In a bedroom, space was so limited had to reverse a wheelchair through the door.

The inspector highlighted safeguarding concerns relating to the ability of a resident to sleep when sharing a room was required.

“This related to a resident that was reported to feel upset as they were woken from their sleep by their peer with whom they shared a bedroom,” the inspector wrote.

In addition, the inspector found that the arrangements that were in place to protect resident’s privacy were not effective, with a light plastic curtain noted as having not fully extended to cover all of the area around a bed.

“This meant that residents did not have adequate privacy from each other when sharing this twin room,” the report said.

The inspector was not assured that the governance and management arrangements were effective and said there was a “lack of adequate oversight of the quality and safety of the service provided and lack of oversight of the systems and processes in place to underpin the provision of the service”.