Patients reveal Ireland's dirtiest hospitals

Feb 13, 2012

Niall Hunter, Editor

Niall Hunter, Editor





Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda has been ranked by patients as Ireland's dirtiest hospital, according to latest statistics from irishhealth.com's ‘Rate My Hospital' Service.

The Drogheda Hospital is last in a hygiene league table of over 50 hospitals, with a hygiene score of 51% by patients and their relatives who rated its hygiene standards on the ‘Rate My Hospital' website.

The findings on 'Rate My Hospital' are collated from detailed surveys submitted by almost 23,000 members of the public on their or their relative's experience in Irish hospitals. The international award-winning service has been running for the past five years.

Waterford Regional Hospital (52%) scored only marginally higher for hygiene than Our Lady of Lourdes. The Mid-Western Regional, Limerick (54%); Mid-Western Regional, Ennis (56%) and Kerry General (56%) made up the balance of the bottom five hospitals.

The lowest-ranked Dublin Hospital for hygiene is St Columcille's Loughlinstown (57%).

Patients have voted St Luke's Hospital in Rathgar as the cleanest in the country, with a score of 96%. St Likes willcease operating as a cancer treatment centre in around five years time.

Of the 'big five' major teaching hospitals in Dublin, Beaumont, the Mater and St Vincent's score lowest on hygiene on ‘Rate My Hospital', each with a score of 63%, while St James's has been voted the cleanest, with a score of 69%.

Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown has been voted the cleanest general hospital in Dublin, with a score of 78%.

The patient hygiene ratings have emerged against a background of there having been no independent national audit of hospital hygiene by the health safety body HIQA since 2009.

HIQA last carried out an individual inspection of hygiene in a hospital in mid-2010. It says it has not been able to focus on hygiene inspections due to a shortage of resources.

So while the HSE, as it did in the recent pseudomonas scare, moved to assure us that hospitals were maintaining good hygiene standards, there is no way of properly verifying this in the absence of an independent inspection an audit regime.

Nearly 23,000 patients and their relatives have now rated hospitals under a number of service and quality categories on ‘Rate My Hospital'.

It is the largest database of health consumer views on the hospital service currently available, and, in the absence of any such information from the Department of Health or HSE, the only comprehensive independent ‘league table' of hospital performance.

Nearly 23,000 patients and their relatives have now rated hospitals under a number of service and quality categories on ‘Rate My Hospital'.

It is the largest database of health consumer views on the hospital service currently available, and, in the absence of any such information from the Department of Health or HSE, the only comprehensive independent ‘league table' of hospital performance based on real-time patient experience.

Here is a selection of some of the comments made in recent months made by patients about hygiene in the bottom five rated hospitals on ‘Rate My Hospital'.

St Columcille's, Loughlinstown:

"As a retired nurse who has worked as an agency nurse in this hospital, and daughter of the patient, I was absolutely appalled by the dirt and filth of the hospital ward. I had to change her, clean her and feed her myself, otherwise I believe that she would have died. She contracted MRSA, and I contracted a serious vomiting bug! The whole experience was frightening."

Kerry General Hospital:

"Hospital was absolutely filthy, would not return there again."

Mid-Western Regional, Ennis

Management system terrible, nurses do their best, hygiene impossible without ensuites. Hospital needs to be demolished asap.

Waterford Regional:

"I found the cleanliness of my ward extremely poor and the toilet/ bathroom facilities were appalling - bins were overflowing. On one evening there was only one toilet working in the ward and that was absolutely filthy. The toilets that were out of order had been reported three days in a row but no plumber had come to fix them. It is unbelievable that by the morning of the third day, there were no toilets working on the ward. The parent room for tea/coffee facilities is just filthy... Overall I cannot believe the poor standard of hygiene on the Sunshine Ward and I would hope that does not set the standard for other areas of the hospital."

Our Lady of Lourdes, Drogheda:

"...I went to find a toilet, to find that there is, in fact, only one toilet in the A&E treatment area. Not one for men and one for women-ONE TOILET BOWL to cope with, I was told, 39 people. The condition of this one toilet, despite the valiant efforts of the gallant little cleaner, was unspeakable. When I asked, I was told to walk into the waiting room where there were male and female toilets. I cannot believe that this new A&E dept was allowed to be built with one toilet..."

Asked about the toilet facilities in the new emergency department in Drogheda, the local HSE told irishhealth.com that the adult ED treatment area there were now four toilets and a shower facility, with two additional toilets having been opened late last year.



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