Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Last week I sat in the kitchen of a woman whose husband died from an MRSA infection. I knew this meeting was coming up so I made a point of meeting her and talking to her about her experience. The main point she stressed to me was the importance of sanctions. Currently, the name of the hospital is published on a website and that is about it. What else happens? A number of reports have been published in recent weeks on various hospitals, including one in my own home city of Waterford. That hospital did not get a good report in terms of hand hygiene. What is happening there and what is the follow-up process? How can I assure the people of Waterford that if they go into the accident and emergency department of their local hospital, they will be safe? People are telling me that they are afraid to go into hospital because they might end up more sick. That is a real indictment of our hospital services. When people are sick, we want them to go to hospital and to get better.

I agree with Senator Burke that this should not be about conducting a witch hunt. We want to solve the problem. We want to find solutions and to create an environment in which people get better. The question was posed whether we should engage with educators and students on this. Enormous resources are expended by the State on the education of the medical, nursing and auxiliary staff who work in our hospitals. What level of emphasis is placed on hygiene in the training and education of staff? I do not want to refer to any particular hospital, but if one is in the vicinity of medical care centres anywhere in Ireland, one will invariably see people walk out in scrubs. How is that acceptable?

The witnesses spoke about empowering families to question medics and to challenge care givers, but that is a very difficult thing for vulnerable families to do as they sit at the bedside of a sick family member. They just want their loved one to get better and should not have to ask staff if they have washed their hands or changed their uniform when they went out for lunch. Families should not have to ask such questions. These things should just happen. Management has an enormous responsibility in terms of taking a leadership role and breaking the culture of non-compliance. It is not good enough to see staff walking around in scrubs outside clinical environments. That should be made crystal clear to staff and medical students alike.

My brother is studying medicine and will be going off on placement shortly. He is currently looking for short sleeved shirts because he knows he cannot wear long sleeved shirts at work. Already he is starting to think about getting himself ready, but when he goes into a hospital for his placement, he will probably be greeted by senior medical staff walking about in scrubs. That is just not good enough. This is very basic stuff.

I wish HIQA well in its role in the inspection of facilities for older people and children with disabilities, in its role in assessing hospital hygiene standards, as well as in its role in social work departments. However, I wish to know more about the qualifications of the inspectors. Everyone here is aware of the recent very damning report on child care facilities and crèches. We know that such facilities are often inspected by public health nurses, who place great emphasis on the clinical environment but not on the practice. I need some reassurance about the qualifications of the inspectors. Are they sufficiently qualified and experienced to be able to assess properly social work departments, hygiene standards as well as facilities for those with disabilities? These are three very different roles requiring different competencies.