Standards in Rehab centre are criticised as it seeks €2m in funds

A disability centre run by RehabCare has been criticised for risk management procedures, fire precautions and the standard of individual assessment and personal plans for residents.

The criticisms in an inspection report on Logan House, Galway, were made by safety watchdog, the Health Information and Quality Authority.

A previous inspection found serious non-compliance, including poor design and layout of the premises.

The follow-up inspection said the centre’s governance and management had improved, but there were breaches of standards in various other areas, including fire precautions.

The report comes as the Rehab Group is involved in intensive discussions on funding with the HSE after threatening to give notice that it would have to shut down its services in a year. It is seeking an extra €2m. It has deferred the issuing of the notice and will review the situation next week.

The charity has 12 senior staff on salaries of more than €100,000.

Asked if there were cuts to these salaries as part of its plan to reduce costs, a spokeswoman said that since it introduced “a raft of cost-cutting measures in line with our new board of directors’ mission to transform the organisation”, salaries of the chief executive and senior managers were aligned to “appropriate benchmarks with the public health and not-for-profit sector”.

This involved “significant pay cuts for continuing senior managers, averaging 20pc and termination of any bonus arrangements. There were more than 40 redundancies”.

She said actions which have a “real and measurable impact on our bottom line” include the sale of a property at Sandymount, closure of loss-making services in Ireland and Britain, restructuring of head office roles, downsizing of staff numbers, non-investment in technology, closure of the defined pension scheme and near elimination of the use of agency staff.

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