HIQA has published more inspection reports which raise serious concerns about hygiene standards at a number of hospitals. The latest unannounced visits were made to Kerry General, St. James's in Dublin, the Eye and Ear Hospital in Dublin and St. Colmcille's in Loughlinstown.
At Kerry General, HIQA said areas were identified which require attention to make sure they comply with the National Standards including light to moderate amounts of dust, clutter in areas, unsecured chemical storage, clinical waste and clinical equipment as well as unsecure medications.
The Authority also found that hand hygiene practices were inconsistent with the National Standards and this poses a clear risk to patients of contracting a Healthcare Associated Infection (HCAI).
It says Kerry General Hospital must now develop a quality improvement plan (QIP) that prioritises the improvements necessary to fully comply with the National
Standards for the Prevention and Control of Healthcare Associated Infections.
For St. James's in Dublin HIQA found that hand hygiene practices there were poor. The Authority says while it recognises that the hospital has implemented initiatives to improve hand hygiene compliance, "this was not operationally embedded".
It says compliance at St. James's was not "operationally embedded"
It adds that the degree of non-compliance regarding hand hygiene "poses a risk to patients at St James’ Hospital. This was brought to the attention of hospital management during the monitoring assessment, who agreed to put in place actions to mitigate this risk".
While on its inspection of the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, HIQA found that 66% of hand hygiene opportunities observed in the Emergency Department were not compliant with best practice hand hygiene procedure. "This level of staff non-compliance placed patients at risk of contracting HCAIs" it said.
It also concluded that hand-wash sinks in some clinical areas in both areas assessed were also not compliant with the HSE's Health Protection Surveillance Centre’s Guidelines for Hand Hygiene and some designated hand-wash sinks were unclean.
It says its observations suggest that "a culture of hand hygiene practice is not embedded at all levels", especially among staff practices observed by the Authority in the Emergency Department.
At Royal Victoria Eye & Ear, it found 66% of opportunities observed in the Emergency Department were not compliant
At St. Columcille’s Hospital in Loughlinstown, HIQA found that the clinical area assessed was generally clean. But that there were opportunities for improvement in practice.
This included that in the clean utility room the protective temporary closure mechanism on two sharps bins was not in place, putting staff at risk of needlestick injury
It also found that there was dust and grit in some areas, and that external contractors were not trained in hand hygiene best practice or standard precautions.
A prearranged visit was also held at Letterkenny General, at which it found the clean utility rooms, treatment rooms, waste segregation room and ‘dirty’ utility rooms were not secure, enabling free public access. It said that this suggests that the physical environment was not effectively managed and maintained to protect patients and reduce the spread of Healthcare Associated Infections.
Poor hand hygiene of varying degrees was found at all of the hospitals which in some cases presented a serious risk to patient health.
