According to the state's health watchdog Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa), six out of 10 hospitals inspected last year were non-compliant with aspects of infection-control procedures against Covid-19.
Recurring issues such as poor physical infrastructure, capacity issues and workforce challenges were found to hinder efforts to cope with the pandemic, and despite investments, issues around infrastructure and capacity have been worsened by the pandemic.
“In most instances, we found an effective approach to adapt to this unprecedented crisis in hospitals. However, hospitals’ efforts were made more difficult due to underlying historic problems with infrastructure, limited bed capacity and unequal or limited access to specialist workforce input and advice – problems that Hiqa’s prior monitoring work against national standards has consistently highlighted.” said Hiqa’s director of regulation, Mary Dunnion.
Source: Irish Times, 10 August 2021
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