Teenagers with disabilities were confined to their bedrooms for 25 days because a lift in their home was broken, a damning report has found.
The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) carried out an unannounced inspection of the Woodbrook Lodge home for children with a disability in Monaghan on January 25.
They found that two residents who were on the first floor had been stuck in their rooms for 25 days because the lift was broken - they also found no other alternative was considered.
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In their report, Hiqa said: “The residents had been living in their bedrooms, engaging in limited activities on the landing area of the first floor, having their meals in the upstairs office area, did not attend school and one resident missed an appointment as there was no way to get them down the stairs except in the case of an emergency.”
The facility, which is operated by MMC Children’s Services Limited, has space for four teens aged between 13 and 17.
At the time of the inspection, three wheelchair users were living in Woodbrook Lodge.
It is understood that the lift had been out of use since December 31, 2022.
It was also out of action for 34 days between July 27 and August 29, 2022.
The report added: “This meant that in the past seven months, two residents were confined to the first floor of their home for a total of 59 days.
“The provider had not responded appropriately to either incident and had not put in place alternative arrangements.
“The provider had also failed to notify Hiqa regarding the issues with the lift or the impact it had on residents on both occasions.”
Woodbrook Lodge was found “not compliant” under eight out of 12 regulation headings that were inspected.
Some of these included staffing, risk management, residents' rights, and fire precautions.
Three staff working at the facility for three months did not have the appropriate training in fire safety and evacuation.
The report went on to say: “The provider had not risk assessed the fact that, if the residents had to evacuate the building in an emergency scenario, the residents’ chairs specific to their needs could not be brought with them.
“The provider had failed to identify any alternative arrangements despite this occurring on two separate occasions.
“Overall, this inspection found that the provider had failed to meet the needs of the residents. The governance and management arrangements were ineffective.
“The residents’ rights had been and continue to be significantly impacted by the fact that two of them were confined to the first floor of their home.
“The residents had been spending time in their rooms and engaging in activities with staff on the landing of their home.
“The residents had been confined to this area for over three weeks at the time of the inspection.”
The report also concluded that there was no “deadline” for when the lift was going to be fixed before the inspection.
MMC Children’s Services said two of the bedrooms have since been moved to the ground floor while staff has received fire safety and evacuation training.
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