An independent hygiene inspection has found a hospital in Drogheda failed to deliver safe and efficient services.

The Health Information and Quality Authority report follows an inspection at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital last month, which found missing and cracked tiles in the emergency department and on a surgical ward.

The authority also noted a mould-like residue on most windows in a maternity ward, under the sinks and on the ceilings of shower rooms.

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Officials at the hospital told the inspectors that the surgical ward had been cleaned and decontaminated in recent weeks following an outbreak of the hospital bug Clostridium Difficile.

A number of sinks and taps in clinical areas did not meet the HSE's guidelines for hand hygiene and staff had problems accessing sinks in the emergency department due to the limited number and location of the sinks.

The hospital only achieved high compliance in one of the seven core criteria for hygienic delivery of services in the report.

(NS/BMcC)