HIQA found the hospital to be substantially compliant in three national standards, partially compliant in six national standards and non-compliant in four national standards on the days of inspection.
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. 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.
In relation to follow-up of the HIQA review of the governance arrangements of gynaecology services at Letterkenny University Hospital which was published in 2021, 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 found several initiatives in the wards visited on inspection which demonstrated the respect and kindness shown by staff to patients in these wards.
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.