New Standards For Elderly Care

The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), has published draft national quality standards for nursing homes and other residential care centres for older people.

The Minister of State with responsibility for Older People, Maire Hoctor, said the draft standards will provide the basis for the very best quality of care to be provided, monitored and enforced in all nursing homes. Following their finalisation, regulations will be drafted by the Department of Health to give statutory effect to the new standards.
 
The 32 draft quality standards  set out the rights of residents in residential care settings for older people and include their entitlement to protection, high quality, safe and respectful care as well as matters such as the staffing and management of the residential care settings.
 
The Authority is now inviting members of the public, residents, staff and other interested parties to submit their views on the draft national quality standards before they are finalised.  Following this consultation, the standards will be reviewed by an established Working Group and finalised in the light of submissions received.

The Authority will then work with the Department of Health  in developing the regulations that will determine the standards which must be met by all registered service providers whether public, private and voluntary, and they will be inspected by the Authority’s Social Services Inspectorate to ensure these are being met.
 
HIQA CEO Dr Tracey Cooper, said the fundamental right of older people to live as full a life as possible in a high quality, safe and respectful environment must be safe guarded at all costs.

“We have seen the serious consequences when basic standards of care have not been met.  The implementation of mandatory quality standards is a hugely important development in the protection of some of the most vulnerable in our society,” she said.