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	A nursing home patient was bed-bound for almost four months, health watchdog inspectors have found.</p>
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	Officials from the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) visited the Talbot Lodge Nursing Home, Kinsealy Lane, Malahide, Dublin in July.</p>
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	They uncovered a number of failings, raising concerns over the hygiene care provided to residents and a failure to report an assault by one resident on another that had caused &quot;serious injury&quot;.</p>
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	The inspectors reported &quot;unacceptable&quot; institutional practices and &quot;a breach of human rights of people with dementia&quot;.</p>
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	The Hiqa inspectors raised a series of concerns over care at the home.</p>
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	&quot;One resident had been bed-bound for almost four months because she appeared uncomfortable in her chair. She had not been referred for a seating assessment,&quot; the report stated.</p>
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	In one unit in the home, residents, &quot;with the exception of four who had asked not to be disturbed, were awoken for their daily medications at 6am and five residents who had dementia were given their breakfast at 6am. These residents were also given their evening meal at 3.45pm.</p>
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	&quot;These institutional practices were unacceptable and a breach of human rights of people with dementia,&quot; inspectors reported.</p>
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	The nursing home told Hiqa that some residents had requested an early breakfast and this was duly facilitated.</p>
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	Inspectors were also concerned that the basic hygiene needs of residents were not being met. Only three out of 84 residents had had a shower twice in the previous week.</p>
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	The nursing home insisted in its reply to Hiqa that all personal hygiene needs were tended to daily, or more often if required.</p>
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	However, it said that on review, some staff were found to have been using inappropriate abbreviations on charts that simply documented &quot;wash&quot;, which &quot;does not accurately reflect the care provided in many cases&quot;.</p>
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	Meanwhile, in another incident, a physical assault of one resident by another that resulted in &quot;serious injury&quot; was &quot;not investigated in line with the policy or notified to the authority as an allegation of abuse,&quot; the inspectors reported.</p>
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	In response, the nursing home confirmed that the injury had been reported to Hiqa and said the incident was &quot;internally reviewed in line with our policy&quot;.</p>
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	The incident was then &quot;reclassified&quot;, the nursing home said, and a report was submitted to Hiqa.</p>
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	<a href="http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/human-rights-of-patients-breached-by-nursing-home-31481508.html">http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/human-rights-of-patients-breached-by-nursing-home-31481508.html</a></p>
