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A NEW RTÉ Investigates programme to air tonight goes undercover in a large nursing home chain with locations in Dublin and Laois to expose poor treatment and practice.
The programme sees two undercover researchers take up posts in two different nursing homes owned by the company Emeis, formerly known as Orpea, which has come under scrutiny previously for the treatment of residents in its homes in France – leading to legal actions being brought against it which remain underway.
It entered the Irish market in 2022 and now operates 27 homes across the country, providing more than 2,700 nursing home beds, many of which are paid for through the HSE’s Fair Deal scheme.
RTÉ researchers, who were fully qualified as Healthcare assistants, went undercover in two homes operated by the company: the residence Portlaoise, which houses up to 101 residents, and Beneavin Manor, a home in Glasnevin, which cares for up to 115 adults.
It costs €1200 a week for someone to stay in the Portlaoise home, and €1400 for them to stay in Beneavin.
While the company claims to provide a high standard of care, RTÉ’s programme, which The Journal has previewed, shows understaffing leading to older people being in pain while waiting to go to the toilet, multiple residents suffering falls after being left on their own, staff moving people inappropriately when they should be using a hoist, and in one case, a man who asked to be taken to the toilet being told directly by a staff member to pee in his incontinence pad.
In another case involving a man with dementia the secret cameras installed by RTÉ shows him being “roughly handled”.
People living in the homes were dressed in inappropriate incontinence wear, left unchanged for hours at a time, and being discovered in wet clothing after they had wet themselves.
Emeis told RTÉ investigates that it is not their policy to understaff their homes.
In the Portlaoise residence, the programme shows residents being kept in a “holding area” so the short-staffed team can better supervise them.
In Beneavin residents were told they could not go out for a walk because “nobody” could take them, and one anonymised employee showcases to the RTÉ researcher how to falsify activities reports for the residents, to make it appear as though the residents have been able to enjoy hobbies, when they have not.
Distressing footage from two different rooms shows residents crying out for help at night because they need the toilet.
In one incident, an elderly, frail woman is seen sitting up on the edge of her bed calling out ‘Sister! Sister! Mother!” while she waits for help.
In the Beneavin home a man asks to go to the toilet, and has the following interaction with a member of staff:
Nurse: [Name], what are you doing? Are you going to wet
your sheet? We don’t have enough sheets, okay?
Resident: I know, listen.
Nurse: We don’t have enough sheets, okay?
Resident: I know, listen, listen.
Nurse: Yeah, go on.
Resident: I have to go to the number one.
Nurse: Number one, yeah?
Nurse: That’s fine, you can. I don’t have anyone to help you;
so you can wear your pad and we’ll change it, okay? You can
pee on… can you put your trousers up, yeah?
Nurse: You can pee on that, okay? I will then change it, okay?
Later, we see staff wake him up loudly around 6am to change his pad. Without washing him, the staff proceed to dress him in his day clothes and leave him in them for the rest of the day; even though he is going back to sleep.
Professor David Robinson, a Consult Geriatrician who appears on the programme, said that its findings show “systemic and institutional lack of consideration for the older person”.
Staff members at Emeis-operated nursing homes made protected disclosures to the Health Information and Equality Authority (HIQA), but it took 17 weeks for follow-up inspections to be carried out, the programme reports.
In response to the findings in the investigation, Emeis Ireland told RTÉ that the evidence it presented of poor care delivery, improper moving and handling of residents’ rights are “deeply distressing”.
The company said it has launched an in-depth review following the programme’s findings.
‘Inside Ireland’s Nursing Homes’ airs tonight at 9.35 pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
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