Over-reliance on agency and contract arrangements at consultant level noted at Cork hospital

Inspectors also noted that monitoring and risk oversight mechanisms required strengthening at Bantry General Hospital.

Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) recently published ten inspection reports on compliance in healthcare services with the National Standards for Safer Better Healthcare

Inspections were conducted between May and September this year at Bantry General Hospital, Cork, Mater Private Network Cork, Blackrock Health Blackrock Clinic, Dublin, Bon Secours Hospital Tralee, Kerry, Naas General Hospital, Kildare and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda.

Inspections were also conducted at St Vincent’s Private Hospital, Dublin, Tipperary University Hospital, Tipperary, Tymon North Unit at Tallaght University Hospital, Dublin and UPMC Kildare Hospital, Kildare.

Across all inspections, services were found to promote a culture of kindness, dignity and respect.

At Bantry General Hospital, inspectors noted improvements had been made since the previous inspection.

Inspectors found that the hospital had workforce management arrangements in place to support day-to-day operations to meet service needs, however, there was an over reliance on agency and contract arrangements at consultant level, and monitoring and risk oversight mechanisms required strengthening.

Inspections found that three services achieved substantial to full compliance in all areas inspected: Mater Private Network Cork, Blackrock Health Blackrock Clinic and Bon Secours Hospital Tralee.

In eight of the 10 services inspected, some degree of improvement was required to ensure service users were protected from the risk of harm associated with the delivery of healthcare services.

Examples of areas that required attention in one or more inspections included improvements in management and oversight arrangements, workforce planning, the physical environment and the monitoring and evaluation arrangements to support and promote the delivery of high-quality, safe and reliable healthcare services.

Nine of the 10 services inspected required improvements to the physical environment to varying degrees.

HIQA continues to engage with each service where non-compliance was identified to ensure compliance with the national standards.