Summer 2014 before doctors learn basic hand hygiene, says HSE boss

HSE director general Tony O’Brien has claimed it will take until the summer to teach all doctors and nurses basic hand hygiene standards after yet another hospital dirt scandal.

The latest in a series of Health Information Quality Authority (Hiqa) reports found that, despite repeated warnings over the dangers of patient infections, medical staff are still failing to wash their hands.

The reports — on St James’s, St Columcille’s, Kerry General, the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, and Letterkenny General — uncovered numerous other hygiene problems.