Hiqa criticises toilet facilities at Bruckless nursing home
In response, Harbour Lights Nursing Home said they had decided to install overhead hoists in various multi-occupancy bedrooms
Toilet facilities at the Harbour Lights Nursing Home in Bruckless were criticised for “not being adequate to ensure privacy and dignity,” according to a Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) inspection.
The Hiqa released a report of their inspection at the facility, which also said that a number of beds “did not provide sufficient space for the resident to use assistive equipment without encroaching on the neighbouring resident’s bed space,” meaning that personal activities could not be carried out in private in multi-occupancy rooms.
Harbour Lights Nursing Home, a short drive from Killybegs, is a 24-hour care facility for 56 male and female adults who have a range of care needs, including dementia.
The inspection, which was carried out on January 14, 2025, found that the facility was compliant with nearly all the regulations inspected, except for Residents’ rights. Staffing, training and staff development, records, health care, individual assessment and care plan, protection and managing challenging behaviour were all categories that Harbour Lights Nursing Home were considered compliant with regulations.
However, the facility was found to be not compliant with the regulation of residents’ rights, due to some toilet facilities and the lack of privacy in multi-occupancy rooms, although at a moderate risk only, as the Inspector gave an Orange risk rating, as opposed to a more dangerous Red risk rating.
The report said that “the toilet facilities near the day room on the ground floor were cubicle-style and did not have walls that reached from the floor to the ceiling to contain sounds and smell,” and thus “this arrangement was not adequate to ensure privacy and dignity for residents when using these facilities.” The report noted that this issue was a “repeated non-compliant finding.”
A date of March 31, 2026, was set by Hiqa for the non-compliant regulations to be improved and made compliant.
In response, Harbour Lights Nursing Home said they had decided to install overhead hoists in various multi-occupancy bedrooms “so that we can facilitate the movement of these residents in and out of the bed without using a mobile hoist and therefore not encroaching on their companion’s bed space,” aimed to complete the work by the end of September 2025.