The Health Service Executive allowed coronavirus-infected residents with dementia in a Co Cork care home to share the same room with residents not infected with Covid-19, newly released records reveal. Two weeks after the regulator first raised concerns on April 17th, the HSE admitted there were residents with no symptoms in the same room as residents who were “positive or suspected positive”. Multi-occupancy roomSusan Cliffe, Hiqa’s deputy chief inspector, wrote to Mr Reaney raising concerns about accommodating residents that had not yet tested positive for Covid-19 and Covid-positive residents in the same multi-occupancy room. He rejected a suggestion of “assigning residents of different gender with dementia in the same room”, saying it was not considered a “safe option”. The statement said that management of the outbreak included “cohorting” which involved keeping residents with Covid-19 or suspected of having Covid-19 separate from other residents.

Source: The Irish Times July 08, 2020 23:54 UTC