By Healthcare Facilities Today

Inspectors who visited the Mater, Tallaght and St Vincent's hospitals have found failures by staff to follow basic infection-control rules, according to an article on the Independent website.

The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) report follows a previous unfavorable inspections of other major hospitals.

The report, following inspections in August, again found that doctors were not washing their hands between treating patients, while staff followed key infection-control protection on just nine of the 17 times they were observed, the article said. The inspectors discovered a "black substance" in some shower areas, unclean hand sinks and "unlabelled syringes" containing unknown solutions that posed a risk of injury.

The article quoted the report warning: "Observations suggest that a culture of hand-hygiene practice is not embedded at all levels, especially among staff practices observed by the authority on St Joseph's ward."

Read the article.