The State’s health service watchdog twice queried the HSE’s decision to allow coronavirus-infected residents share rooms with non-Covid residents at a west Cork care facility during an outbreak of the disease. The regulator, the Health and Information Quality Authority (Hiqa), twice wrote to the HSE over how residents were being accommodated at Clonakilty Community Hospital after receiving information from a concerned relative claiming that infection controls were not being followed. Letters detailing the concerns were released to The Irish Times by Hiqa under the Freedom of Information Act. Hiqa redacted information identifying individuals and homes from the records but this newspaper has independently established their identities. The HSE’s Cork Kerry Community Healthcare division said in reply to queries that the care facility followed “at all times” the expert advice and guidance of a consultant geriatrician, a public health consultant and the HSE’s infection prevention and control team during the outbreak.

Source: The Irish Times July 09, 2020 01:32 UTC