INO ‘not surprised’ at hospital’s dirtiness

A NURSING representative at Ireland’s dirtiest hospital yesterday blamed overcrowding and lack of infection control resources for its failure to meet minimum hygiene standards.

Philip McAnenly, INO representative for the staff at St Colmcille’s Hospital in Loughlinstown, Dublin, said he was not surprised by the finding that it topped the list of hospitals that showed poor standards of cleanliness. Neither hospital management nor the Health Service Executive should be surprised either, he said.

“I visited the hospital last week and saw scenes of very bad, serious overcrowding in the outpatient department. There were pitiful scenes there. I saw one elderly man with a plaster cast on his leg and no chair was available. He was standing and trying to support himself on one leg.”

He said that last month two additional clinics were added at the hospital without any extra resources.

“In this month there are plans to add three further clinics and no consultation with the nurses who are expected to run them.”

He said cleaning procedures were also inadequate.

“In St Colmcille’s after five o’clock in the evening there is no dedicated cleaning staff on duty until eight o’ clock the following morning, that’s 15 hours.”

Mr McAnenly said the INO had always stressed the importance of a dedicated infection control resource, particularly in the light of the dangers posed by hospital superbugs such as MRSA.

“The post has only been filled since last March and will, in fact, be vacated again this week and I fear the situation will worsen in that hospital. The INO has, for the past four years, been calling for a dedicated infection control resource to be employed in St Colmcille’s but the speed that the HSE moves to fill posts would give me cause for worry.”

On RTÉ radio, Mr McAnenly added that if proper infection control resources were employed throughout the hospital, nurses would work to bring marked improvement to hygiene standards at St Colmcille’s.

The INO’s national spokesman, Liam Doran, said overcrowding was leading to a situation where staff were too busy to wash their hands as frequently as they should.

“Every standard drops when you have an overcrowded hospital,” he said.

“Until we tackle overcrowding, we will not tackle and reverse the trend with regard to MRSA and other cross-infections in hospitals.”

Stephen McMahon of the Irish Patients Association welcomed the fact that the standards of hygiene in individual hospitals were now in the public domain, although the results of the audit were of great concern.