Quick answer: Yes — HIQA inspectors do record curtains, both as cleanliness findings under Regulation 27 (Infection control) and as privacy findings under Regulation 9 (Residents’ rights). In every case we found, the accepted remedy was a documented cleaning schedule, never a specific numerical interval. We anonymise every centre below — our point is that curtains are on the inspection checklist, not to single out any individual home.
Every HIQA inspection report is published on hiqa.ie. We reviewed a sample of publicly available reports for curtain-related findings and set out what we found below, each with a direct link to the source PDF so you can verify it yourself.
A note on scope, honestly stated: this is not a systematic search of HIQA’s entire report archive — that would mean reading several thousand PDFs. It’s a sample. Treat the findings below as evidence that curtains are something inspectors do look at, not as a statistic on how common curtain findings are across all centres.
What we found
1. Cleanliness finding — Regulation 27 (Infection control)
An unannounced inspection in December 2023 recorded that “toilet cabinets were heavily soiled, curtains were heavily stained.” The provider’s compliance plan response was that “an enhanced cleaning schedule, including the cleaning of curtains…was introduced.” Read the report (PDF)
2. Cleanliness finding — Regulation 27 (Infection control)
An unannounced inspection in January 2026 recorded that “curtains in a shared room were visibly dirty.” The provider’s compliance plan response was that “a formal curtain cleaning schedule is in place, and curtains identified as unclean have been removed, cleaned or replaced as required.” Read the report (PDF)
3. Cleanliness finding — Regulation 27 (Infection control)
An inspection in June 2025 found that “some areas of the centre required deep cleaning to remove dust, debris and cobwebs,” with cobwebs “present in areas including the lounge and conservatory, on ceilings, curtains, radiators and equipment.” The same report separately noted “there was no cleaning schedule available such as how often rooms are deep cleaned,” and that the centre’s own monthly facilities audit had recorded 88% compliance — a figure that “does not coincide with the findings on the day of inspection.” The Regulation 27 judgment for this inspection was Substantially Compliant. Read the report (PDF)
This one is worth reading closely. The gap here wasn’t that cleaning wasn’t happening — it’s that there was no documented schedule to check it against, and the centre’s own audit figure didn’t match what the inspector found on the day. That gap between “we believe it’s being done” and “we can show it’s being done, on a schedule, in writing” is exactly what a compliance certificate after every visit is designed to close.
4. Privacy finding — Regulation 9 (Residents’ rights)
A different kind of finding: an inspection in July 2025 found that “two twin bedrooms did not have appropriate privacy curtains in place.” The cause was curtains sent for laundering with no spare set hung in their place. This is a distinct issue from hygiene — it’s an absence of privacy, recorded under a different regulation entirely. Read the report (PDF)
What this tells you
- Curtains appear under at least two different regulations — Regulation 27 (Infection control) for cleanliness, and Regulation 9 (Residents’ rights) for privacy when curtains are absent during laundering. A cleaning approach that takes curtains away and doesn’t replace them with a spare set can create the second problem while solving the first.
- The remedy inspectors accept is a documented schedule, not a number. In every finding above, the compliance plan response referenced a cleaning schedule being introduced or already in place — never a specific interval like “every three months.” This matches what National Clinical Guideline No. 30 itself says: facilities should develop a local schedule that suits their environment.
- An internal audit can say one thing and an inspection can find another. The Croft Nursing Home finding above is the clearest example — an 88% internal compliance figure sitting alongside cobwebs the inspector could see on the day. Independent, dated, photo-documented records are what closes that gap.
See our evidence page for the peer-reviewed research behind why curtains need a recurring cleaning schedule in the first place, and our free HIQA curtain hygiene checklist for what to have in place before your next inspection.