The Health Information and Quality Authority threatened to close a centre for adults with disabilities earlier this year after a resident swallowed a number of latex gloves.
However, the Co Wicklow centre which is run by the Saint John of God Community Services, remained open after HIQA satisfied itself that its owners had begun improving residents' safety and care.
According to a HIQA inspection report published today, the Ravenswell centre in Bray was accommodating ten adults, many of whom were non-verbal, when HIQA carried out an unannounced inspection in February of this year.
It was triggered by a notification from the service provider that a resident had swallowed a number of latex gloves and had to be treated in hospital.
HIQA says Saint John of God's Community Services alleges that the incident resulted from neglect by its staff team.
The watchdog's inspector found that the ten residents were not appropriately safe or protected. His report said that an inspection three months earlier had found there were inadequate measures in place to safeguard residents identified as having the condition PICA, which puts them at risk of ingesting inedible objects.
He also said that assurances by the service provider following a notification of neglect the previous month had not been implemented.
Within three minutes of beginning the inspection, the inspector found that a latex rubber glove was accessible to the same resident who had recently swallowed the same kind of item.
The centre's management was ordered remove it.
The inspector found that the provider's implementation of safeguarding policies was ineffective. For example, the allegation of neglect that triggered the inspection was reported to the centre's 'designated person' later than regulations permit and it contained inaccurate information.
Despite an absence of appropriate preliminary screening, investigation or interviews about the matter, the formal response to the allegation was that there were "no grounds for further investigation".
The centre's safeguarding log contained 20 further safeguarding referrals and the response to each was "no grounds for further investigation".
The report states that residents' safety and care was also compromised, in particular by the standards of risk management, medication practices and governance and general management.
Early in the inspection HIQA says it contacted the provider's Chief Executive Officer and a notice of proposal to cancel the centre's registration was issued.
A follow-up inspection three weeks later in March concluded that the centre had begun improving residents' safety and care.
The report on that inspection states that HIQA notified some of February's concerns about the centre in the course of a review of its safeguarding and risk management systems carried out in consultation with the HSE's National Safeguarding Office.
The inspection report also states that medication practices had improved since the February inspection and that the Saint John of God Community Services had highlighted that governance and management arrangements were being "considerably reviewed".
However, HIQA's review adds that inspectors found that the provider failed to demonstrate regulatory compliance in the areas of resident's rights, dignity and consultation, premises, risk management, safeguarding, healthcare, governance and management and workforce.
