NEWS Is Hospital Cleanliness Mission Impossible?


A report has dubbed overcrowding at a major Irish hospital emergency department aS the main cause of lacking hygiene, threatening the safety of up to 60,000 patients every year.


The University Hospital Limerick, Dooradoyle – previously named the Mid-Western Regional Hospital – has been labelled ‘unacceptable’, with patients put at huge risk of infection while they are openly treated on trolleys in public areas of the hospital. This information was discovered by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), and Phelim Quinn, Director of Regulation at HIQA, had stern words of warning for hospital managers. He said: “HIQA believes that the conditions experienced by patients attending the emergency department in University Hospital Limerick are unacceptable. The department was overcrowded and not fit for purpose.”


HIQA found that the emergency department of the hospital in question had up to 37 patients waiting on trolleys at any one time during inspections


which were tipped off to medics in advance. Given that the University Hospital Limerick is the main hospital for the population in Limerick, Clare and North Tipperary, the overcrowding has a huge impact upon a large section of the community, with doctors and nurses moving around treating the sick in open areas due to the lack of private bays.


According to the report, “ill patients were placed close together with little or no privacy or dignity”, leaving the area “impossible” to properly clean, as there were so many trolleys on corridors and open areas. As if this wasn’t enough, patients who were known to have contagious infections could not be moved to an isolation area, as there weren’t any – one critically ill patient who needed a bed in the high dependency unit was forced to wait in the overcrowded emergency department.


A new emergency department is being built at the hospital, but is not expected to be open before 2016 – management and the Health Service


Executive (HSE) urgently need to find a solution to the conditions which are posing a serious risk to patients at the hospital.


The HIQA report continued: “Other risks identified within the emergency department were delays in the admission of children to wards, while being accommodated in adult surroundings. This was despite the fact that a new children's area had been developed, but remained unopened.”


There were further delays in transferring patients from the emergency department to the intensive care or high dependency units. However, one positive identified by HIQA was the clear willingness to change and improve conditions at the hospital. “The momentum witnessed locally must now continue and be supported by the HSE nationally in order to ensure that patients in the region continue to receive safer, better care,” concluded Phelim.


Surroundings Shear Perfection Thanks To Ryans


The team at Ryans Cleaning had a few hundred cattle, pigs and sheep to contend with as they worked around the clock to keep Ireland’s largest agricultural and food show in spotless condition. The Balmoral Show, held at Balmoral Park in Lisburn, attracted crowds of around 130,000 and more than 600 exhibitors over a busy three- day period.


Ryans Cleaning returned for a third year to ensure the site’s 68acres were kept clean, operating a day and night


shift and working closely with other contractors onsite to meet all cleaning needs. Pat Ryan, CEO of Ryans Cleaning, said: “It was a great effort from all our staff who had to grapple with warm weather and huge crowds, which made it difficult to move around quickly. We were able to overcome this by identifying the busiest spots and distributing staff efficiently.


“On the last day the main area was very crowded, as people flocked to the winner’s parade which was a


Noah’s ark of all different kinds of animals – from ducks and chickens to cattle and pigs. It was important that we returned the area to a pristine state, which we achieved with a large- scale cleaning operation once the crowds of people and animals had gone home. The Balmoral Show is a huge event which grows every year, but our experienced team was well equipped for the challenges.”


Exhibitions at The Balmoral Show, now in its 146th year, ranged from machinery demonstrations to sweet shops, and attendees were even treated to a Boldog Lings freestyle motorcycle display. The six nations’ sheep shearing contest was held at the event, while hundreds of sheep, horses, cattle and goats competed in different categories to earn their chance in the spotlight.


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