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Prime time homecare scandal

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  • 14-12-2010 12:07am
    #1
    High energy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 227 ✭✭


    Did anyone watch this tonight?

    Horrific stuff. Carers adminstering medication, forcing food into their mouths, abusing them, humiliating them in the toilet, no qualifications or experience carers being thrown in with the "worst" elderly people, etc. The screams of that old woman being abused will haunt me for a while.

    The shocking stuff is, these companies are getting €150 million / year from the taxpayer and are completely unregulated. You or me can go to the companies registration office and startup a company tomorrow hiring unqualified, unexperienced, not garda vetted carers - refusing to pay them, and pocketing millions of taxpayers money.

    It's typical Irish beurocracy. React to problems as they arise rather than put in systems to prevent them occuring.


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    #2
    tony1kenobi
    Registered Users Posts: 3,748 ✭✭✭tony1kenobi


    Why don't you start a company taking care of old folk in a really nice way instead of pissing and moaning on the internet?


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    #3
    High energy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 227 ✭✭High energy


    tony1kenobi wrote: »
    Why don't you start a company taking care of old folk in a really nice way instead of pissing and moaning on the internet?

    Because I have no experience or qualifications in healthcare, am in a different career area, and would be hopeless at caring for anyone, especially the elderly.

    I suppose prime time should have started a company taking care of the elderly too instead of exposing the abuse to the public :rolleyes:


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    #4
    spank_inferno
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,892 ✭✭✭spank_inferno


    Solution to elderly care = Soylent Green

    mmmmm.... thats good grandma!


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    #5
    CreepingDeath
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,016 ✭✭✭CreepingDeath


    spank_inferno wrote: »
    Solution to elderly care = Soylent Green

    Nah, a Logans run variation would be better.

    Only allow people to live for 5 years after they retire.
    That'll cut down on the pension funding problem.


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    #6
    Boom__Boom
    Registered Users Posts: 3,105 ✭✭✭Boom__Boom


    Once again an utter disgrace and the HSE is at the heart of it.

    Fingers crossed the next government tells everyone with a desk job in the HSE to do one.

    Has anyone ever been fired from the HSE for anything?

    Aine Brady the minister responsible doesnt feel the area needs regulation. Fingers crossed for that statement alone will get her turfed out on her ear at the next election.

    Kate Hartigan displaying utter contempt for people with her attitude on The Frontline.


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    #7
    steddyeddy
    Registered Users Posts: 27,564 ✭✭✭✭steddyeddy


    Not from the hse, the carer involved was sacked.


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    #8
    GSV
    Registered Users Posts: 60 ✭✭GSV


    spank_inferno wrote: »
    Solution to elderly care = Soylent Green

    mmmmm.... thats good grandma!

    Don't be ridiculous! Old people would taste like sh*te.
    Young cheerleaders would taste the best and have a much better texture.


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    #9
    Newaglish
    Registered Users Posts: 2,734 ✭✭✭Newaglish


    tony1kenobi wrote: »
    Why don't you start a company taking care of old folk in a really nice way instead of pissing and moaning on the internet?

    Worst post of the... ever.

    Banking crisis? Why don't you bailout the banks?
    Poor hospitals? Why don't you set up your own hospital?
    Inefficient public service? Why don't you start your own country?
    Paedo priests? Why don't you start your own religion?

    Seriously, don't you see how nonsensical that is?


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    #10
    Boom__Boom
    Registered Users Posts: 3,105 ✭✭✭Boom__Boom


    steddyeddy wrote: »
    Not from the hse, the carer involved was sacked.

    Yeah but what I mean is that the HSE set up a system where they are handing over millions of euro a year to a bunch of evil uncaring companies without any sort of regulation/oversight ?

    Surely this sort of stupid incompetence should result in people being fired from the HSE?


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    #11
    Dempo1
    Registered Users Posts: 26,957 ✭✭✭✭Dempo1


    tony1kenobi wrote: »
    Why don't you start a company taking care of old folk in a really nice way instead of pissing and moaning on the internet?

    God forbid you ever have to depend on these sickening vultures, it was appalling stuff not that you seem particularly interested in care of the eldery.

    Is maith an scáthán súil charad.




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    #12
    Dempo1
    Registered Users Posts: 26,957 ✭✭✭✭Dempo1


    Sickening, disgusting, outrageous are but a few words that come to mind. I can not believe after all the scandals in the health care system this disgraceful behavior is being permitted. More shocking than the treatment endured by some residents was the disgusting attitude of the owners of Clontarf home care, whom i have already emailed.

    Jesus Christ will the HSE ever learn, heads should role on this but of course they wont.

    ****ing Vultures, i watch an earlier program on the treatment of Holocaust victims after liberation on RTE 2 earlier, to my mind there wasn't much of a difference.

    Is maith an scáthán súil charad.




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    #13
    dr ro
    Registered Users Posts: 970 ✭✭✭dr ro


    Maybe harney will set up a centre of excellence for elder care. Probably.


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    #14
    PCPhoto
    Registered Users Posts: 6,584 ✭✭✭PCPhoto


    Leas Cross was highlighted in 2005 .... elderly people were being abused and not treated properly in care.

    2010 ... and the only difference is that there are more places/companies with employees who mistreat and abuse the elderly in their care.

    The HSE - like everything else run by the unions/Government .... is reactive instead of proactive .... the people that have the power to make the changes are too high up and no interaction with the "on the floor" day to day running of the place.

    Bring in accountability everywhere - sack the bosses of the HSE, introduce regulation (independent) and fund the regulation from the wages of the sacked HSE middle-management......the entire country needs an overhaul ...... from political system to judicial system ...to health system etc ..... but the glaringly obvious problems are missed by those who can change things.


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    #15
    Novella
    Registered Users Posts: 13,713 ✭✭✭✭Novella


    Shit, I meant to watch this. I'll catch it on rte player tomorrow, hopefully.

    Anyway, what springs to mind for me is that a few months ago, I had a job interview in a nursing home. I have no qualifications in the area of nursing, or even being a carer, but the job was advertised as a 'someone to spend time with the elderly'. I figured it'd be things like keeping 'em company, reading, playing cards etc., so I applied 'cause I adore older people.

    The interview was a quick chat, no questions and then the man conducting it told me I'd be shown how to use equipment to lift patients and said I'd have to wash them, assist them with going to the bathroom...

    I thought, "Uh-oh, this sounds totally outta league". It turned out that many of the 'nurses' working in the nursing home weren't qualified at all, and had just walked in off the street as I had done. I was completely shocked. I'm not saying that the care was sub-standard, but considering the price paid to have these people in a home, one would expect that at the very least, the nurses had been through college and had more training than a 2 hour course on their first day.

    I dunno, it's not good enough imo. The dreary atmosphere in those places actually makes me shudder, and I know it can't be all happy happy but leaving people of 80+ years of age sitting in a room by themselves for hours on end is total crap. They deserve the best care and attention. Some of the going on's actually break my heart, and I know that I'd be more than devastated if I ever found out that a relative of mine had been treated in that way.


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    #16
    Seloth
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,039 ✭✭✭Seloth


    My mother is a Geriatric nurse and allot of times these care assistants are foreign with very little qualification or care for the job.Not to be racist on the subject but the majority of times its cause by these care assistance.One night for instance a Nigerian woman came in,her nails quite long and curled,all done claiming she cannot do any work as her nails were just done,and on many occasions if she had them done up she was told not to do work as the nails would hurt the patient.

    On other occasions they would throw the patient or move them in such a way which would hurt them,having no comprehension that such movements are bad for frail bodies.

    Not saying all of these foreign care assistants are the problem,but they are a good percentage.


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    #17
    brianthebard
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,165 ✭✭✭✭brianthebard


    High energy wrote: »

    It's typical Irish beurocracy. React to problems as they arise rather than put in systems to prevent them occuring.

    Agree wtih everything you said except the above point - surely it was a lack of bureaucracy that allowed this to happen? Regardless the Irish state is rapidly being revealed as a complete sham, incapable of working for the basic needs of the people in the country, hidden until recent years by a slew of cash.


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    #18
    kowloon
    Registered Users Posts: 13,364 ✭✭✭✭kowloon


    dr ro wrote: »
    Maybe harney will set up a centre of excellence for elder care. Probably.

    I think she'd prefer the soylent green solution. :pac:......


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    #19
    easyeason3
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,104 ✭✭✭easyeason3


    How much does it roughly cost to put someone in one of these homes a week?


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    #20
    admiralofthefleet
    Closed Accounts Posts: 15,515 ✭✭✭✭admiralofthefleet


    there is so much i could say here about the level of care my late grandmother recieved in the months leading up to her death, but ill only get extremely angry typing it


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    #21
    enda1
    Registered Users Posts: 5,166 ✭✭✭enda1


    easyeason3 wrote: »
    How much does it roughly cost to put someone in one of these homes a week?

    I think its around 500 a week!

    (Open to correction here)


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    #22
    Son Of A Vidic
    Registered Users Posts: 32,370 ✭✭✭✭Son Of A Vidic


    enda1 wrote: »
    I think its around 500 a week!

    (Open to correction here)

    That's a conservative estimate, that price is more like 2005/06 pricing. I'm not sure what the average is now. But no doubt, considering we live in the 'Republic of Sh1t hole', the price has undoubtedly inflated.


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    #23
    dolphin city
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭dolphin city


    I still get surprised that people get surprised when they see things like this come on the tv - when are people going to face up to the fact that we have been living in an extremely corrupt situation for decades. The elderly people in nursing homes were being ROBBED every month for thirty years by the government - when it was exposed the government had the cheek to say that they would only get a portion of what was robbed from them back.

    do you honestly think that people in their big job in the hse worries about what is going on, on the ground.

    Its time for a change in government and policy - and by that I don't mean another "same oul, same oul" routing. I mean a sweeping change that will really put the wind up these corrupt country. At the moment we are living in a casino for the fat cats.


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    #24
    angelfire9
    Registered Users Posts: 2,226 ✭✭✭angelfire9


    Full time nursing home care in a residential registered nursing home is upwards of €700 per week minimum depending on the dependancy of the client

    PRIVATE Nursing homes in Ireland are well regulated these days & undergo HIQA inspections but they are VERY expensive
    HIQA only started inspecting HSE operated homes in the last 12 months

    There are still problems with regard to elder abuse in private homes but at least Garda Vetting & Fetac Level 5 are required for employment as a Care Assistant in 99.9% of private nursing homes
    Garda Vetting should also be acquired for admin/housekeeping & catering staff

    The Prime Time investigation was into the unregulated area of "caring" for the elderly in their own homes

    I found it very distressing especially where the lady was being force fed :(

    The companies featured seem to be totally focused on taking advantage of the HSE's inadequacies and the fact that alot of the elderly they are dealing with do not have relatives to speak for them

    Very sad indication of how our society treats those that built this country in the 30's/40's/50's


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    #25
    Dempo1
    Registered Users Posts: 26,957 ✭✭✭✭Dempo1


    Seloth wrote: »
    My mother is a Geriatric nurse and allot of times these care assistants are foreign with very little qualification or care for the job.Not to be racist on the subject but the majority of times its cause by these care assistance.One night for instance a Nigerian woman came in,her nails quite long and curled,all done claiming she cannot do any work as her nails were just done,and on many occasions if she had them done up she was told not to do work as the nails would hurt the patient.

    On other occasions they would throw the patient or move them in such a way which would hurt them,having no comprehension that such movements are bad for frail bodies.

    Not saying all of these foreign care assistants are the problem,but they are a good percentage.

    I Do see your point but clearly there was Irish carers culpable and more to the point Irish owners/managers of this Horrid Home care companies who not only oversaw this disgraceful neglect but by all account encouraged it whilst profiteering from their actions. It was outrageous and these scumbags should be prosecuted. To top off this horrific mess the minister responsible stated she felt lack of regulation was not the problem? I am mad as hell, disgusting state of affairs and this on the back of nursing home scandals, will the HSE ever learn!

    Is maith an scáthán súil charad.




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    #26
    Cianos
    Registered Users Posts: 4,850 ✭✭✭Cianos


    Seloth wrote: »
    My mother is a Geriatric nurse and allot of times these care assistants are foreign with very little qualification or care for the job.Not to be racist on the subject but the majority of times its cause by these care assistance.One night for instance a Nigerian woman came in,her nails quite long and curled,all done claiming she cannot do any work as her nails were just done,and on many occasions if she had them done up she was told not to do work as the nails would hurt the patient.

    On other occasions they would throw the patient or move them in such a way which would hurt them,having no comprehension that such movements are bad for frail bodies.

    Not saying all of these foreign care assistants are the problem,but they are a good percentage.

    "These foreigners" aren't the problem :rolleyes:. The problem is the lack of regulation and vetting of agencies and their employees - whether they happen to be foreign or not.


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    #27
    Dempo1
    Registered Users Posts: 26,957 ✭✭✭✭Dempo1


    Cianos wrote: »
    "These foreigners" aren't the problem :rolleyes:. The problem is the lack of regulation and vetting of agencies and their employees - whether they happen to be foreign or not.

    The real problem is these leeches running these companies, Jesus i wanted to &$% that?? (no i won't go there) from the Clontarf agency, i wonder when her time comes what will her thoughts be, absolutely shameful. I emailed this company last night and as anticipated no response forthcoming! at th very least this agencies contract should be canceled immediately.

    Is maith an scáthán súil charad.




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    #28
    BickNarry
    Registered Users Posts: 228 ✭✭BickNarry


    Seloth wrote: »
    Not saying all of these foreign care assistants are the problem,but they are a good percentage.

    Anecdotal evidence is not a valid basis for ''a good percentage".

    Reminds me of that song ''they always try to blame it on the blacks,when its really those in power who will stab you in the back....''

    We have a clear problem here in Ireland with the Carer profession. Those who provide care for family/friends/neighbours are often left without financial or social support while private run services are left to their own devices. Coming out with these statements about foreign nationals only distracts from the issue.

    Vulnerable people should not be left in the care of those who are unqualified and/or unsuitable for the job. We need procedures and regulation based on research in the area.


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    #29
    Ash.J.Williams
    Registered Users Posts: 20,929 ✭✭✭✭Ash.J.Williams


    Can anyone tell me the name of the kennels that the evil woman runs? i recognised the gate and fear a friend may have used her before?


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    #30
    Lorrs33
    Registered Users Posts: 690 ✭✭✭Lorrs33


    I watched that documentary as part of my FETAC Level 5 Healthcare course and I took three pages worth of notes which just made me emotional. I was on the brink of tears by the end of it. When I finish my course I intend to be the nicest, most obliging carer Ireland has ever seen :)


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    #31
    steddyeddy
    Registered Users Posts: 27,564 ✭✭✭✭steddyeddy


    Boom__Boom wrote: »
    Yeah but what I mean is that the HSE set up a system where they are handing over millions of euro a year to a bunch of evil uncaring companies without any sort of regulation/oversight ?

    Surely this sort of stupid incompetence should result in people being fired from the HSE?

    no because the hse are deflecting blame to the companies involved and in turn the companies involved are blaming their staff. What I want to know is that b!tch in the footage still in the country and has anyone got her address :S


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