Today, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has published 20 inspection reports on infection control in designated centres for people with disabilities. HIQA inspects against the Health Act 2007 (Care and Support of Residents in Designated Centres for Persons (Children and Adults) with Disabilities) Regulations 2013 and the National Standards for Residential Services for Children and Adults with Disabilities, which apply to residential services for people with disabilities in Ireland.

The infection prevention and control (IPC) inspection programme aims to promote continuous quality improvement in infection prevention and control in line with the National Standards for infection prevention and control in community services (2018), as published by HIQA.

Inspectors found a generally good level of compliance with the regulations and standards across fifteen centres inspected.

Good practice was observed by inspectors in centres operated by: Avista CLG; Brothers of Charity Services Ireland CLG; Enable Ireland Disability Services Limited; Health Service Executive (HSE); Muiríosa Foundation; Resilience Healthcare Limited; Saint Patrick's Centre (Kilkenny)/trading as Aurora-Enriching Lives, Enriching Communities; St John of God Community Services CLG; Stewards Care Limited; and Talbot Care Unlimited Company.

Examples of good practice included:

• Management structures were in place to ensure that IPC practices were subject to continual review, ensuring their effectiveness and promoting a consistency of approach by staff.
• Residents were kept updated and informed about infection, prevention and control practices through the availability of easy-to-read documents, posters and information on how to prevent the spread of infection.
• IPC-related audits ensured the ongoing cleanliness and good condition of centres with issues of concern being reported and addressed in a timely manner. 

However, five centres operated by Brothers of Charity Services Ireland CLG, Gheel Autism Services, Kerry Parents and Friends Association, Muiríosa Foundation, and St Catherine’s Association CLG were found to be non-compliant, which meant that residents were not being adequately protected from the risk of infection. These providers were required to take actions to improve their infection prevention and control arrangements.

Examples of areas requiring improvement included:

• Improvements were required in arrangements for the effective cleaning of clinical care equipment to prevent the spread of infection. 
• Improvements were required in staff access to infection, prevention and control-related training.
• Improvements were required in the documentation of cleaning records.

A full list of reports published today accompanies this statement. 

Read all reports by following the link below.