A dirty business

The Health Information and Quality Authority’s report on its unannounced visit to Waterford Regional Hospital makes for challenging reading.

Immediate and serious risks to patients were identified at the 549-bed hospital. Hospital management have been give six weeks to address the problems which are based around a lack of basic cleanliness.

Very few people go to hospital by choice. It is one of the times when we place great trust in others, depending on their care and professionalism to help us overcome whichever condition has made hospital attention necessary. That that fraught situation is, at WRH at least, complicated by the absence of basic hygiene is unacceptable.

In the context of progress made in this area in recent years, the response from Waterford Regional, that they will work to change the culture at the hospital, seems limp.

It is unfortunately another example of failure without consequences in our public life. Had such a damming report been made about a hotel or even a private hospital it is more than likely that new managers would be appointed.

Once again, basic standards of accountability have been set aside and patients’ interests put in second place.