A HIQA inspection found the facility non-compliant in workforce management.
A new report from the health watchdog has found significant staffing issues are affecting service delivery at the Midlands Regional Hospital in Mullingar.
While patients at the Westmeath hospital felt busy staff were "doing their best", HIQA found the facility non-compliant in the area of managing their workforce to enable them to provide high quality, safe healthcare.
The inspection from the Health Watchdog examined the hospital's service providers plan, organisation and management of its workforce to meet its objectives for high quality, safe and reliable healthcare.
A 17% shortfall in nursing staff, 46% shortfall in midwifery staff and 13% in healthcare assistant staff meant the hospital was deemed to be non-compliant in this area.
HIQA has listed a number of actions that will need to be taken to resolve the issue, all of which relate to the recruitment of key staff across the facility.
This latest HIQA report also cited the hospital over a lack of privacy, dignity and confidentiality for patients on trolleys and chairs in the emergency department’s public corridors.
The action plan to ensure full compliance on the national standard includes relocating the Acute Medical Assessment unit adjacent to the Emergency department to reduce numbers seen in the ED, as well as opening a newly designated 2 bedded area for the Mullingar Frailty Intervention Team.
Overall, the hospital was found to be fully compliant in just one of the 11 national standards assessed by HIQA, substantially compliant in six, partially compliant in three, and non-compliant in one.
HIQA says while there's work to be done, there were responsive management arrangements in place to address the issues.
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