A HIQA inspection of Ennis General Hospital has raised concerns about cleanliness and hygiene.
The report comes in light of an unannounced inspection of the hospital's endoscopy unit last month and has been published this afternoon.
A HIQA inspector visited Ennis General on August 7th last, and focussed on the hospital's endoscopy unit has part of her investigation.
She found it was generally clean, but noted 'unacceptable levels of dust..along floor edges' and 'on the edges of a trolley" used in a 'clean room', where processed scopes are stored.
Improvement is also sought in terms of hand hygiene – two of nine hand hygiene opportunities observed by auditors were missed, while latest audit results show compliance is below the HSE's national target of 90%.
The inspector also observed "inappropriate use of personal protective equipment such as gloves and aprons. For example, staff wore gloves and aprons while performing patient observations, and gloves were worn when delivering food on a tray to patients and pushing patient trolleys.
It was also found that a risk assessment for the prevention and control of Legionella has not been carried out at Ennis General Hospital since 2011, in contravention of National Guidelines, but the hospital does plan to comlpete that this year.
