All relevant information received by the Health Information and Quality Authority about nursing homes is acted upon, the agency has insisted.
It follows comments by the Ombudsman that complaints about the Áras Attracta centre in Mayo could have been investigated independently by his office if they had been passed on by Hiqa.
The centre was the subject of an undercover investigation by RTÉ’s Prime Time this week, which showed verbal and physical abuse of residents with intellectual disabilities.
Hiqa carried out an inspection of the facility in Swinford last February and has defended its own actions, saying it immediately escalated its concerns with the HSE.
Speaking on Thursday, Mr Tyndall said what had happened at the centre was “utterly appalling” but he said he believed complaints were not being passed on by Hiqa.
Mr Tyndall said his office had a draft memorandum of understanding with the inspection authority “which means that they should be bringing a complaint to our attention”. Hiqa, however, has said it is still awaiting a response from the Ombudsman about the draft document that has been with him since October.
“If a complainant comes to them, and they can’t investigate the complaint they should be signposting them to us. I would prefer that they actually asked for that person’s permission to pass the complaint on directly,” Mr Tyndall said.
“It’s not happening in practice. They’ve had complaints and they are not reaching us.”
“It strikes me as well that what was happening at Áras Atracta was utterly appalling and certainly fell well within the remit of the guards also,” he said.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr Tyndall said if the kind of information revealed in the investigation had been brought to his office’s attention it would have examined the allegations itself.
“But one of the things that has most troubled me about the whole episode is that people have been told that there is nowhere you can complain if you are concerned about your relative or someone you know in those kinds of circumstances; that there is nowhere you can bring a complaint if you don’t get satisfaction when you complain locally.
“That simply isn’t true. Áras Attracta and other HSE-run facilities are within my jurisdiction and if people have complaints about them they should bring them to us.”
He said his office had been in touch with Hiqa and was waiting for a response.
“It is really important that people understand that there is an independent and objective place that they can take their complaints,” he said.
He said his office did receive complaints about nursing homes but the numbers were “much lower” than it would expect.
“We’ve instigated an investigation to try and establish how complaints are dealt with locally. We’ve started off looking particularly at the major hospitals to see how they are dealing with complaints. Because I would expect a much higher proportion of the complaints that are made to reach my office if they are not solved satisfactorily locally.”
He also believed there was a reluctance for people to make a complaint where their relative or loved one was still within a facility because they felt that person would be victimised.
“I feel that’s a very sad indictment of the situation.”
Responding to Mr Tyndall’s comments, Hiqa said there was no memorandum of understanding between the two bodies.
It said an early draft document had been with the Ombudsman since October 21st and was awaiting his reply.
“That draft document does not set out any requirement for Hiqa to share or pass on complaints it receives with the office of the Ombudsman. Hiqa has had discussions with the Ombudsman about sharing information on trends or patterns in relation to the information it receives but not specific complaints.”
Hiqa said all information received was acted on “immediately”.
“This includes complaints as well as other information.”
“When Hiqa receives primary complaints the procedure for dealing with those complaints is that they are passed to the relevant service provider to investigate through its own complaints procedure. It is on the basis of non-resolution of that complaint that it would be referred to the Ombudsman by the provider.”
The agency said it was not true that there were 400 unanswered complaints.
“In 2013 Hiqa received 355 pieces of information in relation to nursing homes; this included unverified information as well as complaints. All of these were assessed carefully and all relevant information was acted on.”