The health watchdog has noted improvements at University Hospital Kerry after a follow-up on the findings of a previous inspection last year.
The Health Information and Quality Authority carried out an announced inspection at University Hospital in March this year and found it to be either compliant or substantially compliant with regulations.
The re-inspection focused on the regulations which were previously deemed not compliant or substantially compliant.
Last years inspection took place in July and Universty Hospital Kerry was given until April 6th 2022 to improve standards at the hospital.
This inspection was carried out to assess compliance with the European Union basic safety standards for protection against dangers arising from medical exposure to ionising radiation.
The regulations set the minimum standards for the protection of those availing of the service.
HIQA inspected 13 areas and found University Hospital Kerry was compliant in 7 areas, and substantially compliant in 6 areas.
The previous inspection found that considerable improvement was required with respect to radiology governance structures, responsibilities with medical physics expert and the level of MPE involvement within the service.
Since the previous inspection, the undertaking had increased the level of multidisciplinary involvement in the local governance structures in the hospital.
Additionally, the medical physics expert (MPE) resourcing had improved but this was only a temporary arrangement and was reliant on outsourcing.
The long-term sustainability of this arrangement for MPE resourcing requires further consideration.
Inspectors were informed that recruitment campaigns for permanent radiologists were still underway and not all posts were filled, however the staffing compliment had increased from three to four since the last inspection.
Overall, the inspectors’ found improvements were evident in the safe delivery of medical exposures and had put measures in place to address some of the non-compliance from the previous inspection.
