The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has today published an overview report on its monitoring activity in healthcare services in Ireland between January 2015 and December 2019. This report provides an overall analysis of the monitoring work that HIQA has carried out during this time. It identifies areas of progress that have been driven through HIQA monitoring across public acute hospitals, and outstanding opportunities for improvement.



Since 2015, HIQA has carried out over 260 inspections in public acute hospitals to assess the quality of care in internationally-recognised areas such as infection prevention and control, medication safety, maternity services, and nutrition and hydration.



HIQA monitors compliance in public acute hospitals against the National Standards for Safer Better Healthcare, and publishes its findings. These standards aim to ensure consistent and high-quality care across the hospital system. Adhering to nationally mandated standards is a key aspect of ensuring that the health system has the required underlying capacity and capability needed to provide a high-quality and safe service.



HIQA’s Director of Regulation, Mary Dunnion, said: “Our experience over the last five years, as outlined through this report, shows how a focus on monitoring compliance with national standards has contributed to tangible improvements and change across public acute hospitals, to ensure the delivery of safer better healthcare. This, combined with some increased investment in certain areas, better collective learning and more effective systems of oversight of performance in services, has contributed to improved quality and safety of these healthcare services.”



Despite a current lack of enforcement powers in healthcare settings, HIQA’s monitoring work has the potential to act as a catalyst for significant improvement in our healthcare services. One such example relates to the work that HIQA has engaged in over many years in the area of infection prevention and control and antimicrobial stewardship. A focus on this area by HIQA has seen an improvement within the acute hospital system’s long-term ability to sustainably address this area of risk – something that will continue to prove critical as the health system responds to COVID-19.

Sean Egan, HIQA’s Head of Healthcare, said: “We believe that overall, healthcare governance and risk management structures have improved in public acute hospitals over the past five years. Our findings demonstrate the importance of how good governance and management, strengthened by an ethos of staff professionalism and team working, is the first line of defence when providing safe, high-quality and reliable healthcare.



Sean Egan continued: “Future legislation under development will see HIQA’s role in the healthcare setting expand to include monitoring against standards in private healthcare, including the introduction of licensing of healthcare facilities. As both HIQA and healthcare providers prepare for this change, it will be important to learn from, and build upon, the experiences gained through monitoring by HIQA against national standards over the past number of years. This report provides an overview of this work, in the interest of assisting with these preparations.”

Ends.



Further Information:

Marty Whelan, Head of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement, HIQA

(01) 8147480 or 085 805 5202

mwhelan@hiqa.ie



Notes to the editor:

• HIQA monitors public hospitals against national standards to promote continual, sustained quality improvement in healthcare services.
• From 2015 to 2019, inspectors conducted 265 on-site inspections. Nutrition and Hydration 13; Infection prevention and control 161; Medication safety 64; Maternity services 22; Rehabilitation and community inpatient healthcare services 5.
• In 2015 and 2016, HIQA also conducted a programme of national monitoring in the area of antimicrobial stewardship, which included inspections in a sample of hospitals, allied to interview with persons with relevant national responsibilities within the HSE.
• In late 2019, HIQA started two additional programmes of monitoring in the areas of rehabilitation and community inpatient healthcare services and medical exposure to ionising radiation in public and private healthcare and dental services.
• HIQA has a mostly monitoring, rather than regulatory, role in healthcare services. This means we inspect and publish our findings but do not have powers of enforcement, other than when regulating medical exposures to ionising radiation, such as X-ray or radiation therapy safety. However, where risk issues are identified, these are reported to either the HSE or to the Department of Health.
• Planned legislation of relevance to HIQA’s future role in the healthcare setting include the Patient Safety (Notifications) Bill, and the Patient Safety (Licensing) Bill. Both pieces of legislation are currently progressing through the legislative process.
• The Patient Safety (Notifications) Bill will, among other things, legislate for an expansion of HIQA’s current monitoring role to include private healthcare facilities. It will also require healthcare providers to mandatorily report certain serious patient safety incidents to HIQA. The Patient Safety (Licensing) Bill intends that healthcare services be licensed by HIQA. This legislation will also confer HIQA with enforcement powers.
• Further information can be found in relation to these new programmes of monitoring and regulation on HIQA’s website www.hiqa.ie, and are available upon request.