'Immediate' work needed to address staffing at Letterkenny hospital

Immediate action is required to address medical staffing levels at Letterkenny University Hospital.

Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) carried out two inspections at the hospital in November.

Although the hospital was meeting some Health Service Executive (HSE) key performance indicators for the management of patient waiting times in the emergency department, the emergency department remained overcrowded, particularly on the second day of inspection.

HIQA also found that immediate improvements were needed to address clinical governance and medical staffing levels in the emergency department.

Vhi marathon ambassador Nikki Bradley attends Bring a Buddy Day

Many people turned out to join Nikki Bradley in Letterkenny

“There was also limited evidence that comprehensive processes were in place to fully manage and respond to certain patient safety incidents as effectively as required, or that sufficient and timely learning was being shared and integrated into practice,” a HIQA statement said.

In relation to gynaecology services at LUH, inspectors found there was good evidence from audit, patient satisfaction surveys and from meeting with staff that improvements have been progressed in the service.

“It is important that improvements identified on inspection are sustained over the medium to long term,” HIQA said.

While HIQA found examples of a number of positive initiatives designed to enhance patient care, further immediate work was required to address deficits in a number of areas, namely: the comprehensive infection screening programme for patients; to improve learning from patient incidents; to fully implement the clinical handover of patients; and to and fully integrate safe processes to manage emergency department patient attendances at the hospital.