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.
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