Care home personal documents

Dey were Sooted

My Partners mother is in a care home under the fair deal scheme. Mother Joan suffers from mental health issues and has been on medication for many years.
There have been reasons to question the quality of care that Joan has been receiving - using medication instead of putting positive actions in place to improve quality of life is one that comes to mind. A while back it was requested that we see documents, personal notes support plan etc but have got nothing. Recently Mary has noticed that Joan's mood has changed and has discovered that Joan's medication has changed once again. Mary had asked to be kept informed of changes in medication and to be included in medical review meetings. When asked how Joans medication had changed she was told it hadn't but by looking at Joans kardex it was obvious this wasn't true.
On meeting the care home manager Mary said that she would be putting in a written request to be able to view documents regarding her mother's care. She was told she would be provided with what she would be permitted to see.
Surely this is not right . Documents should be available to service user and family on request. It appears the nursing home are not being fully transparent and have a few things to hide as they are not happy when asked direct questions. Can anyone offer any insight please regarding what info should be available ? Names in this description have been change . If in the wrong forum ,apologies and please move to appropriate one. Ty

Vetch

When you say you put in a request, was it a written request that cited the Freedom of Information Actt?

I don't know anything about the Fair Deal scheme so someone might well tell me I'm wrong but theoretically if the scheme is part publicly funded, even if the nursing home is private, you might be able to access information under FOI. The nursing home might be a contractor on behalf of the HSE and then the information they hold is in under FOI. Your partner or her mother's next of kin may be able to access information if the patient is deemed 'incapable' of exercising her own rights under FOI.

Dey were Sooted

She hasn't put it in writing just yet . She just mentioned it to the manager hoping it might get things moving and that was the response that she got. I imagine the home is being contracted by the HSE. Just seems these people aren't being as transparent as they should be and that is making us uncomfortable.
We would look after Joan but with her mental health issues it would be extremely difficult. Even a visit can become difficult at times so we don't be at the home as much as we would like. The hone seem to be dojng just enough to care for people but I feel it is the bare minimum and under most of the time.

So to request information using the FOI means that all documents should be disclosed ?

My partner is thinking of going to a solicitor on this as she feels they are not being cooperative

Vetch

Assuming the records are FOI-able,and I think they are:

For an FOI request you need to specify exactly what records you want or what information you want. I wouldn't lodge a request for 'all information' held about the patient.

You mention a specific record in your first message - personal care support plan. You could ask to see that and define the time period you want this record for. Looking at your message, you could also ask for any notes that exist of medical review meetings and records of what medication she's on and why changes were made to the medication.

Normally you can only ask for records that are currently in existence ie the FOI body doesn't have to create new records to answer your questions. The one exception to this is that if an FOI body makes a decision that materially affects a person, then the person is entitled to a statement of reasons as to why the decision was made. In this case, even if no record of it exists, the nursing home might be obliged to give you a statement of reasons as to why medication was changed.

If you lodge an FOI request, it must be in writing (letter or email) and it must mention the FOI Act. Otherwise it's not valid. Also be sure to date it and keep a copy. Normally the time limit for answering is 20 working days. If they don't reply at all it's a deemed refusal. If they reply and refuse it can be appealed.

Also, if you don't mind me saying - you want the nursing home to communicate with you on an ongoing basis rather than having to resort to FOI to get information. Before lodging the FOI request, I'd be pointing out to them that your partner can get the information under FOI and it would better for everyone if they communicated properly with her. If the nursing home is private, the staff might not be that clued into FOI.

Personally, I wouldn't go to a solicitor yet. It will only cost you money and the FOI request should be free of charge. The Ombudsman can investigate certain complaints about nursing homes. The Ombudsman is also the Information Commissioner and ultimately a refusal of an FOI request can go to his office. I'd be going down that route before paying a solicitor, who will probably tell you to go FOI anyway! I would also be telling the HSE about the communications issues. You could contact the HSE FOI Unit and ask them who the FOI request should be submitted to: HSE itself or the nursing home. I wouldn't be sure which of them should answer an FOI request.