Killaloe nursing home going up for sale for €2.6m

A KILLALOE nursing home is on the market for €2.6m

The Lakes Nursing Home in Killaloe is one of four nursing homes in the Aperee Group which are to be sold by liquidator Gerard Murphy for €8m. The sale is part of an effort by the revenue commissioners to wind up the nursing home group.

The Lakes Nursing Home is the most valuable facility up for grabs, priced at €2.6 million, alongside other nursing homes in Cork and Galway. The Killaloe facility is comprised of fifty-two bedrooms with fifty-seven bed spaces and a capacity for one hundred people. Agents Colohan Dowling have recently entered the sale-agreed stage with five other Aperee nursing homes throughout the country. It dates back to 1999.

Mowlam Healthcare, one of the largest nursing home operators in Ireland manage the Killaloe facility. Mowlam also operates St. Martha’s Nursing Home in Charleville, Co. Cork which is currently up for sale for over €1.25 million.

The Blackbee group, which oversees the operations of the Aperee nursing homes throughout the country, had been under pressure from HIQA to meet regulatory standards at a number of its facilities. This led to some of the group’s homes either closing or being overtaken by the HSE in Callan, Co. Kilkenny, Belgooly Co. Cork and Ballygunner Co. Waterford.

A 2024 inspection of the Killaloe facility found that “staff were not always appropriately supervised”. The HIQA report also found that “resident meeting records demonstrated that concerns were raised by a resident regarding call bell response times at night”.

Other discrepancies were also found in the Lakes Nursing Home. Staff were not always properly supervised, with HIQA noting that “adverse incidents were not responded to in an appropriate manner. For example, incident forms were not completed following unexplained injuries sustained by two residents”. HIQA also found that residents in the facility were not properly safeguarded from potential abuse and controls in place to manage risks were not implemented correctly.

In a statement to The Clare Echo, Mowlam Healthcare said that they will “continue to operate Lakes Nursing Home as normal until such a time as the ownership changes”.

“When the ownership does change, Mowlam Healthcare may be requested to remain in place, but if not, we will facilitate a smooth handover to the new owners. This will ensure that there is continuity for residents and their families”, they concluded.