After three year hiatus pharmacist to be added to Mayo hospital's ranks

Swinford District Hospital has welcomed yesterday’s publication of the HIQA compliance report. 

As reported in The Mayo News, the hospital was found to be partially compliant with two national standards by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA). 

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Welcoming the report findings, Des Mulligan, Head of Older Persons Services, HSE West said: “This is a positive report and I would like to thank the staff in Swinford District Hospital for continuing to prioritise the provision of safe and high quality care for our patients. In particular, the inspection highlighted the hospital’s commitment to fostering a culture of kindness, consideration, and respect and this was also evident in-patient feedback.

“We welcome HIQA’s findings and recognise the important role of the Regulator in assessing and promoting safety and quality in the healthcare services. A number of actions are now underway to address areas of improvement identified in the report.”

READ MORE: Mayo hospital had no pharmacist for more than three years

One of these actions is the agreement with a community pharmacist to provide supervision, audit and oversight of medication services in the hospital on a part time basis and it is envisaged they will commence in the coming weeks.

The HIQA report had noted that “inspectors were told that the pharmacist position within the hospital had been vacant for more than three years and efforts at recruitment were unsuccessful.”

Hand Hygiene was also identified as an area for improvement. To this end, the hospital states that “since the inspection took place, Staff Training Mandatory training attendance for hand hygiene has shown marked improvement, now standing at 100% for clinical staff. 100% of Nursing Staff are compliant with Medication Management Training and efforts are ongoing to achieve and maintain the HSE target of 90%.”

The report also highlighted Infection, Prevention and Control (IPC) as an area for improvement. Hospital management is committed to improving mandatory training compliance across all staff categories, particularly in hand hygiene and standard and transmission-based precautions. Since the inspection took place, Staff Training Mandatory training attendance for hand hygiene has shown marked improvement, now standing at 100% for clinical staff. 100% of Nursing Staff are compliant with Medication Management Training and efforts are ongoing to achieve and maintain the HSE target of 90%.