Six new board members appointed to care homes watchdog

By Michael McHugh, PA

Six interim board members have been appointed to the watchdog which inspects care homes in Northern Ireland.

They include Queen’s University medical academic Professor Stuart Elborn and other experts with a nursing, legal and social care background.

Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) interim chair Christine Collins said the six are widely experienced.

She said: “The board will use their skills, from the fields of nursing, medicine, law, social work, finance and administration, together with their passion for excellence in health and social care, to provide positive leadership to RQIA during the challenging months ahead.

“We will work to ensure that RQIA makes a full contribution to the task of transforming and rebuilding our health and social care system, with the needs of service users and improvement to the safety and quality of services as the centre of attention.”

The appointments come after nine members of the board resigned over claims they were not consulted on key decisions taken during the coronavirus pandemic.

Following the resignations, health minister Robin Swann ordered an independent review of the inspectorate and wants to see greater patient involvement in its work.

David Nicholl, of On Board training, will undertake the review.

The minister said: “The breadth of the expertise and experience of the new interim board members speaks for itself.

“I would like to thank them for being prepared to take on these key roles at this crucial time.