HEALTH chiefs have admitted they require a minister to implement some of the key recommendations of a scathing report into care failings at a Belfast nursing home that rocked the sector.
Richard Pengelly, the most senior civil servant at the Department of Health, yesterday confirmed that while they will act on most of problems flagged up in the Dunmurry Manor Care home probe, the creation of an Safeguarding bill for vulnerable adult people will not be possible.
A minister will also be required to sign-off on a recommendation around the installation of covert CCTV footage in care facilities.
Mr Pengelly, who is effectively the stand-in minister in the absence of powersharing, made his statement on the day that relatives of a pensioner who suffered appalling neglect at Dunmurry Manor staged a protest about the inaction around the watershed review.
A "horrific catalogue of inhuman and degrading treatment" was discovered at the 76-bedded facility following the Commissioner for Older People's investigation, with residents being starved, denied medication and in some case being sexually assaulted by other residents.
Health services bodies, including the Department and the RQIA watchdog, were also castigated by the Commissioner, Eddie Lynch, about their response to whistleblower complaints and the inspection process.
Letters sent to families of care home residents to 'reassure' them after Dunmurry failings
Julieann McNally, whose late grandmother Annie McCourt was a resident between January and June 2016, has been campaigning for the past three months following the release of the Commissioner's probe.
The 89-year-old west Belfast woman suffered a fall two years ago but it took staff 10 hours to contact her family. When they found her, she was slumped on a chair with vomit down her back.
Ms McNally along with her mother and sisters attempted to meet Mr Pengelly yesterday as he attended an unrelated health service event in Belfast city centre.
"The main contact we have had since the report's publication has been with the police who are - carrying out an investigation into the neglect. For us as families, there has no direct contact with health officials, in fact there has been silence," she said.
"So while they say they accept most of the Commissioner's recommendations today and intend to act on them, the proof of the pudding will be over coming months to see if any real improvements are made.
"A critical review into Cherrytree nursing home over four years ago was accepted by the health service but they didn't act on it. If they acted on it, Dunmurry Manor might not have happened."
Mr Pengelly said they had taken the Commissioner's report "very seriously" and will "set out a package of measures that we will now take forward".
"While we will now work to deliver against these commitments, it must be recognised that, in the absence of ministers, there are a number of recommendations which we are unable to action," he added.
"However, the public should be assured that we are giving these issues due consideration and we will provide appropriate advice on these to any incoming minister."
