A residential centre for people with disabilities in Co Tipperary has been criticised by the Health Information and Quality Authority for failing to provide adequate escape from fire for staff and a resident using attic rooms.
Group L in St Anne's Residential Services consists of two houses located five minutes apart near the centre of a Co Tipperary town in which nine mostly older residents receive care and support.
Inspectors say they found significant deficits in the quality of care provided.
Of the 18 outcomes inspected, seven failed to comply with regulations in a major fashion.
In one example, adequate means of escape from fire was not provided in one of the houses the attic of which had been converted and contained two bedrooms, a staff office and a bathroom.
The sole exit from these rooms was by means of a narrow and steep staircase leading directly into the kitchen and there was no fire door at the top of the stairs.
The inspectors found this arrangement could not guarantee exit from the building in the event of a fire for staff or for the resident who used the en-suite bathroom in the resident bedroom, which was vacant at the time of last October's announced inspection.
Since the previous inspection in June last year, the service had commenced two reviews into the management of residents' finances in the centre.
The first was by the director of finance into the operation and control of the finances of residents. Its proposed completion date had been postponed from August until November last year.
The second review dealt with service users' financial accounts across all of St Anne's residential services. The completion date of this review was also extended by the service in this case until the end of January.
Prior to October's inspection HIQA had received a notification from the centre of alleged abuse.
A preliminary screening of this allegation had been completed by the social worker in July 2015 and St Anne's service was undertaking an investigation of the allegation, with a report due at the end of October but had extended the date for the completion to mid-November.
A separate centre run by St Anne's caring for 30 residents with severe to profound intellectual disabilities was found to have no identifiable person in charge during an unannounced inspection last January.
The inspectors say gaps in relation to the centre's supervision had already been identified at an inspection as far back as December 2014 and following that inspection, HIQA had received written assurances from St Anne's Service that there would be an identifiable person in charge there at all times.
The provider was required to take immediate action to address the matter and provide re-assurances that their previous response would be implemented in full.
The provider responded "appropriately and within the required timeframe. A new roster was drawn up by the close of inspection that ensured that a suitably competent person would be identified as a lead person to manage the centre at all times," the report states.
However, the report warns that it had "not yet been demonstrated that the person in charge had the required supports to enable her to effectively monitor and supervise the quality and safety of care being delivered to residents".
