HIQA report Letterkenny General Hospital

On July 9, 2013, HIQA carried out an announced monitoring assessment at Letterkenny General Hospital, Donegal.
 
This phase of monitoring is a contributory phase towards preparing service providers for the eventual monitoring of services against the National Standards for Safer Better Healthcare.
 
In line with this aim, the Authority reviewed the National Standards for the Prevention and Control Healthcare Associated Infections (NSPCHCAI) and framed them within three themes of the National Standards for Safer BetterHealthcare.
 
These themes are:
Theme 1: Leadership, Governance and Management
Theme 2: Workforce
Theme 3: Safe Care
 
The areas assessed at Letterkenny General Hospital were:
Surgical 1 (medical ward: Respiratory Medicine, Cardiology and General Medicine) Maternity ward
Surgical 2 (mixed surgical specialities)
 
Since the visit took place, two significant events occurred, both of which have an impact on the implementation of the recommendations of the report.
 
On July 26, after 57mm of rainfall in 15 minutes, floods wiped out 40% of the floor space of LGH, eliminating more than 70% of the hospital’s capacity. A re-build has started in eleven key areas and this is expected to be complete by autumn 2014. The observations in the HIQA report will be taken into account in the relevant areas of the re-build programme.
 
Letterkenny General Hospital is now part of the West/North West Hospitals Group. A key action of the Group is to introduce its new Clinical Director Structure and the Group will establish a Group Integration Team to oversee integration of the new hospitals.
 
The HIQA Report identified a number of positive developments and improvements at Letterkenny Hospital since they had previously visited in February 2013.  There were particular improvements in the cleanliness of the environment and hand hygiene training.  Letterkenny Hospital recognises that whilst hand hygiene rates have improved since the previous HIQA visit, the results of this most recent audit demonstrated the need for further improvement in our hand hygiene practice.  The hospital is committed to delivering this improvement and ensuring that the hand hygiene practices of all staff are to the highest standards and as part of that commitment, we are the first hospital in Ireland to publish our Hand Hygiene audit results at the entrance to every ward and clinical department. 
 
Letterkenny Hospital looks forward to working with the West/North West Hospitals Group to ensure the appropriate governance are in place for these improvements and will take on board all of the recommendations of the HIQA report, which will now become the responsibility of the integrated group structure.