161 employees in Limerick out of work due to Covid-19

THE HSE HAS said that three of the nation’s acute care hospitals are under “significant pressure” due to Covid-19 outbreaks leading to staff shortages, ward closures and the decline in elective care.

In Limerick, there are 161 employees out of work today due to a positive test or because they are a close contact for a confirmed case. Most of these staff come from Limerick University Hospital and the HSE expects these numbers to increase as all staff are now being screened.

There are also 77 employees who are not available to work today at Naas General Hospital and there is a significant outbreak at Letterkenny Hospital.

In HSE’s weekly Covid-19 update, CEO Paul Reid said hospitals are “losing a lot of staff on shifts.”

Reid said it has caused a ripple effect in wards that are out of order, with five wards at Limerick University Hospital closed due to staff shortages. He said some hospitals have had to step back or suspend elective care and some medical and surgical rooms have had to close.

“In a case [Naas General] It’s probably back to where we were in April in terms of the hospital only handling critical and urgent care, ”Reid said.

“The reason I say all this is to express how fragile it is as long as the virus is in our community, we are at high risk in our health systems. And it can change very quickly. These hospitals today are under very, very significant pressure ”.

He said there are concerns about the numbers and trends in Donegal, which has not seen the same level of decline in transmission as in other parts of the country.

“We saw in the early phases in October that the pressure point at our three border hospitals particularly Cavan and Letterkenny was quite significant and Letterkenny has not really recovered since then, it is still seeing the impact of the high level of transmission in Donegal, Reid said.

He confirmed that there is a procedure whereby a healthcare worker who is a close contact can return to work after just five days of isolation if all other resource options have been exhausted and are needed at the hospital. This does not include those who have had a positive test or anyone who is symptomatic.

Reid said that while community transmission numbers show clear signs of declining across the country, hospital numbers are stabilizing but not decreasing.

He said the health service is not seeing the kind of reduction in hospitalizations and ICU admissions of Covid-19 patients that it would have liked to see in recent weeks. Today there are 287 Covid-19 patients in the hospital, 39 of them in the ICU.