Privacy issue is raised at Clon Hospital

LONG-term residents of Clonakilty Community Hospital are living in accommodation which impacts their privacy and dignity on a day-to-day basis and especially at the end-of-life stage. 

An inspection by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), conducted last December, found that overall the healthcare needs of residents were met to a high standard. Inspectors saw good communication between staff and residents who felt well cared for. 

And while planning has been submitted for a new hospital with 20 single bedrooms, set for completion by 2020, some residents described living in the existing multi-bedded rooms as difficult at times, quoting lack of privacy and lack of space. 

There were 91 residents at the time of the inspection and a number commented on noise from other residents and from staff providing care to other residents around their beds, that woke them up. 

Residents also told inspectors how difficult it is when another resident in their room was at the end stage of life. It was found that there were not enough single rooms in the hospital  to facilitate residents to have privacy at this stage. Neither were there suitable facilities available for families to spend time alone with residents at this time.

 Inspectors also found that limited communal or private visiting rooms meant that lots of visits had to take place in multi-occupancy bedrooms which did not ‘promote or protect the dignity of the residents in the other beds who may require personal care or be trying to sleep/rest watch television while visitors were in their bedroom.’

The report pointed to ‘repeated failure to take all necessary action to improve the privacy and dignity of residents’ as these were issues which had been raised at previous inspections. 

Poor findings and inadequate provider responses to two inspections completed since January 2018 had precipitated this follow-up inspection.