Facilities at Cork hospital criticised by Hiqa for medical exposure to ionising radiation

Two Cork University Hospital facilities received the worst marks in Cork from the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) for medical exposure to ionising radiation.

Last week, Hiqa published 17 inspection reports assessing compliance with medical exposure to ionising radiation regulations, including five Cork facilities across both the public and private sector.

Hiqa found that Complete DXA Solutions in Mahon was fully compliant with all regulations, while Mercy Hospital (MUH) and UPMC Bon Secours each had one substantially compliant mark and were otherwise fully compliant. 

Additionally, in the MUH, considerable improvements in overall levels of compliance since the last inspection.

Good practice

Examples of good practice were observed by inspectors during these inspections included in UPMC Bon Secours

Alliance Medical in CUH was marked not compliant in the area of Procedures, but was otherwise fully compliant. 

Regulations state that information relating to patient exposure should form part of the report of the medical radiological procedure, but inspectors found this information was not available for CT exams at the facility.

“As the majority of exams carried out at the facility involved CT, this meant that information relating to the patient exposure did not form part of the report for the majority of exams at Alliance Medical,” the inspector wrote, adding: “Inspectors were informed that the host site were in the process of progressing a technical solution to meet the requirements, but a timeframe for this to be completed was not available”.

The provider assured Hiqa that since the time of the inspection, information relating to the patient exposure is now present on all radiological reports.

Least compliant

Radetal’s Cork service at CUH was the least compliant in the country, with four non-compliances, six substantially compliant areas and just two areas that were fully compliant with regulations.

The inspectors found that written protocols were established for a number of standard medical radiological procedures, however these did not include paediatric procedures.

Inspectors also noted that only one clinical audit had been carried out in the last 12 months, and a clinical audit schedule was not in place.

There were also questions around the referrals process, and the terms of reference of the radiation safety committee contained information about organisations that no longer operate — the document was due for an update in 2019, yet it was not reviewed on the day of inspection.

Due to the non-compliances identified, immediate engagement was required with the undertakings to provide assurances to Hiqa that the non-compliances identified during the inspection had been addressed.

The provider assured Hiqa that procedures, documents, and policies had been reviewed and updated, and that a formal clinical audit strategy had been adopted.