An independent audit of decontamination practices in hospitals across the State has highlighted serious breaches of standards in a number of instances which could be putting patients at risk.
The audit, carried out by UK consultants, has found poor practice in a number of hospitals and has also criticised the actual facilities housing a number of decontamination units.
Decontamination is the combination of processes including cleaning, disinfection and sterilisation used to render reusable invasive medical devices such as endoscopes and surgical instruments safe for handling by staff and for use on patients.
Some units sterilising medical instruments were found to be housed in portocabins and some were close to intensive care units.
A portocabin is in use at Ennis General Hospital.
An informed source told The Irish Times the findings of the audit were "dynamite"."They [ the decontamination units] certainly don't meet EU regulations . . . there are a large number of hospitals not reaching proper standards," the source added.
The poor practices identified could be putting patients at risk of picking up a range of infections from one another including hepatitis and MRSA.
The hospitals where audits were carried out have now been furnished with their results and the Health Service Executive (HSE) confirmed yesterday that a full report would be available next month. It said it had initiated the audit last year.
"The HSE initiated an audit of decontamination services in all our hospitals last year, 2006. This involved the HSE contracting an independent company to carry out the review focusing on all related processes, facilities and equipment.
"Each hospital has now been audited by the independent company. The HSE will be receiving the full report at the end of November," it said.
It added that it had been drawing up a national code of practice for decontamination facilities as none were previously available.
"The code [ inclusive of standards and recommended practices] will be published and disseminated to hospitals in the coming weeks," it added.
In its statement the HSE also said: "Decontamination services are one element of a hospital's overall programme to minimise the risk of infection to patients and staff. Infection-control policies and procedures are in place in all our hospitals."
In relation to Ennis General Hospital, the HSE said it was aware that the facility in use for decontamination "is a portocabin but would stress that we are satisfied that the decontamination facilities and services are operated to a very high standard".
Speaking about the audit at a conference in Dublin last month, Dr Mary Hynes, assistant director in the HSE's national hospitals office, said: "We had some reports all was not well in this area."
On the possible findings of the audit at that stage she said: "It might end up being very like the first hygiene audit [where results were mainly poor] but if you don't know where you are you can't improve it."