Better staffing and waiting times but Cork's Mercy building still needs work, says report

Improvements in staffing and time awaiting admission were noted in a recent HIQA report of Mercy University Hospital, but the hospital building itself remains an issue, inspectors said.

Overall, the hospital was judged to be compliant with four national standards, substantially compliant with four and partially compliant with three.

On the day of inspection, there were 24 patients registered in the emergency department (ED) with no patients on trolleys awaiting an inpatient bed. Data on the hospital’s ED patient experience times showed that the hospital was compliant with all HSE targets around time waiting for treatment.

Compliance with ambulance handover within 20 minutes was 50%, below the national target of 80%, and the average waiting time from registration to triage was 17 minutes, while the HSE target is 15.

However, positives included an improvement in the average time from medical assessment to decision to admit and from decision to admit to admission to an inpatient bed from 2024 times.

VACANCY RATE

At the time of inspection, the hospital's vacancy rate was 4.26% and the absenteeism rate was 4.92% which was slightly above the HSE target of less than, or equal to, 4%.

The hospital had 1.15 whole time equivalent (WTE) clinical microbiologist consultants, and there was one WTE consultant microbiology vacancy. The hospital had submitted a business case to the regional health authority for two additional consultant microbiologist WTE positions, but neither post was approved at the time.

The hospital was working with the regional authority to identify funding for one WTE position. The deficit in consultant microbiologist posts was recorded on the corporate risk register, and inspectors were also advised that the hospital did not have a decontamination lead.

However, positive changes were also noted, such as all pharmacy positions filled, an improvement from the 24% vacancy rate recorded in the 2024 inspection report, and improvements related to historic staff deficits in the emergency department.

Issues were raised in relation to the premises itself, with inspectors saying the physical environment did not fully support the delivery of high quality, safe, reliable care and protect the health and welfare of people receiving care, especially vulnerable patients.

“The inadequate number of toilet and shower facilities and the lack of single rooms with en-suite facilities posed a risk of transmission of communicable infectious diseases," 

it added. 

Hospital management were constantly monitoring challenges with the infrastructure with an ongoing plan of work in place, it also said.

The HSE told HIQA after the inspection that work was ongoing to progress a new 72 ensuite single bedroom ward block project, and that there was phased refurbishment of wards rooms taking place in the meantime.