Kilkenny nursing home completes remarkable turnaround in new healthcare report
The north Kilkenny facility had been under massive scrutiny after damning reports were published in recent months
After back-to-back inspections filled with overwhelmingly negative accounts of serious non-compliance last year, Brookhaven Nursing Home just outside Ballyragget has achieved a commendable review without a single instance of non-compliance in a newly released Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) Review.
Grave concerns had been raised surrounding the centre after an October 2025 inspection resulted in it failing to record any ratings of full-compliance, with issues in the areas of staff shortages and deficiencies in governance systems leading to the centre being referred to as ‘substandard’ by HIQA.
Restrictions were placed on the nursing home’s registration, requiring it to cease new admissions until improvements were demonstrated and although a follow-up inspection in December of last year showed some promising signs with increased adherence to regulations, eight areas of severe non-compliance still persisted.
However, Brookhaven’s upwards trajectory continued and its hard work was clearly shown after a near-perfect rating in the newly published April 8 inspection report, four months after the previous HIQA visit.
The centre received 12 ratings of full-compliance and two of substantial compliance without any instances of non-compliance, a remarkable improvement less than six months on from Kilkenny Senator Patricia Stephenson calling issues at the facility “deeply concerning”.
The recent positive changes were corroborated by residents and family members who spoke with inspectors, saying that the atmosphere in the centre was welcoming, there had been improvements in communication between staff and families and that the building had a warm, homely feel.
The condition of residents’ bedrooms was also observed to be in a better condition since the prior inspection with most units decorated in personal items like photos, art pieces and bed linen.
After the glaring issues identified in past inspections, governance and management systems were reviewed and had their oversight strengthened with the provider in the process of embedding governance and management, and organisational system changes.
The report asserted that the systemic changes being made were supporting and facilitating the residents to have a good quality of life and highlighted the change of person in charge in January along with the hiring of an additional clinical nurse manager.
One of the few areas lacking in full-compliance was found in a number of the centre’s audit records not consistently identifying areas for improvement or how the improvement was to be achieved and sustained.
Major advances were also detailed in the quality of end of life care, individual assessment of residents' rights.
A persistent failing of previous reports had been a lack of palliative care measures from a holistic person-centred approach and end of life wishes not being clearly set out within personal plans.
This was rectified so that residents received care that met their needs while also being afforded the opportunity to outline their wishes for end of life care.
Deficiencies observed around individual care plans which were not adequately detailed or person-centred in past inspections had also been addressed with all plan reviews comprehensively completed every four months to ensure that residents’ changing needs were noted.
Criticism had been levelled at the lack of meaningful activities for residents who stayed in their bedrooms whereas now, a strong focus on social interaction led by staff provided service users with daily opportunities to participate in group and individual activities.
The second and final substantial compliance rating in the inspection was for the condition of the premises in which some areas of flooring were damaged in bedrooms, wear and tear was noted on corridor walls and shower drains were unclean.
Brookhaven outlined plans to fix the two substantial compliance ratings in the final section of the report; pages which were a fraction of the length of previous inspections and served to demonstrate the centre’s fantastic work in fixing the most serious of issues in a relatively short period of time.