A damning report by health watchdog HIQA into Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda has warned of high risks for patients, due to hygiene problems, including the risk of contracting Legionnaires' Disease.
The Health Information and Quality Authority said it is a "significant concern" that the risk of Legionella persists in the hospital water supply, despite significant financial investment to address the problem.
At Drogheda, shower heads were removed from patient wash rooms in the affected areas 18 months previously as a risk control measure and these had not been replaced, due to the risk for aerosolisation of Legionella bacteria into the environment.
It says it is essential Legionella risk at the hospital is managed, especially to protect patients who may be particularly vulnerable to infection.
Environmental water testing by the hospital had identified the intermittent presence of Legionella species in water samples in some patient areas in the older hospital block.
The unannounced inspection found a major problem is the high bed-occupancy and because of this the hospital has problems maintaining areas and upgrading hygiene facilities.
The findings during the inspection in June were so serious that HIQA said a re-inspection was needed within six weeks.
Among the main failures were lack of hand hygiene compliance, safe injection practice, enviornmental and patient equipment hygiene and Legionella control measures.
Hand hygiene was significantly below the HSE national target and access to facilities to wash hands were a problem.
During the inspection, HIQA observed staff open several sterile syringes at the same time, directly on a work top, adjacent to a clinical hand wash sink.
HIQA has also published two separate reports into inspections at the Rotunda Hospital and Beaumont Hospital.
Overall, the areas inspected at Beaumont were generally clean and well maintained.
But HIQA said the hospital needed to adopt a more systematic approach to the ongoing assessment of its water supply due to the Legionella risk.
In a statement, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda said it acknowledges the issues raised in the HIQA report and said it has a "robust governance structure in place for the management of all aspects of the National Standards for the Prevention and Control of Healthcare Associated Infections."
It also said it has "developed a quality improvement plan to address the remaining outstanding issues raised in the report."
The hospital said water quality management is monitored and there have been no hospital acquired infections associated with Legionella bacteria at the hospital.
It said random testing is carried out on a monthly basis at the point of water supply and within the past year, three samples have returned with a bacterial level higher than accepted norms, but that in each case the source has been identified and remedial action taken.
The hospital said there is an effective process to ensure an adequate supply of mop heads and vacuum cleaners and the HIQA concerns, which arose on the day of its inspection, related to a single incident where there was a "lack of awareness of the well-established process" in place.
