Zero ICU beds available in nine acute care hospitals in Ireland

Source: HSE.ie

CORK UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, Mercy Hospital and St. Vincent’s are among the 10 hospitals nationwide with no ICU beds available, as Covid-19 cases rise and new restrictions take effect.

The latest HSE data shows that out of 28 acute care hospitals across the country, nine facilities, including Cork University Hospital, Kerry University Hospital and Mercy Hospital, had no ICU beds available as of 6.30pm yesterday.

It comes after health officials confirmed 1,095 Covid-19 cases in Ireland and five more deaths. It was announced last night that Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan will be subject to Level 4 restrictions, while a national ban on domestic visitors takes effect at midnight.

ICU capacity and hospital admissions have continued to rise in recent weeks amid calls for increased ICU capacity heading into winter.

As part of the 2021 budget, € 22 billion will be earmarked for the health service with plans to increase ICU capacity to 321 by the end of next year.

There are currently 214 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Irish hospitals, including 30 cases in the ICU. The number of hospitalized cases fell from 240 on Monday to 214 last night.

Speaking last week, HSE CEO Paul Reid said that Ireland’s hospital system is “challenged, not overwhelmed,” but cautioned that some hospitals will have to activate surge capacity to facilitate ventilation with Covid-19 and without Covid-19.

Reid warned that some procedures planned this winter will be affected.

Talking to TheJournal.ie Last week, Limerick University Hospital intensive care consultant Dr. Motherway said that providing acute patient beds and staffing for those beds will be important to ICUs.

“We need to expand the number of hospital beds so that when we have a patient ready for discharge from the ICU, they have a bed to go to and their ICU bed can go to another patient.

“Both intensive care beds and beds in general rooms need to be expanded and, while there is a commitment to do so, [the HSE’s Winter Plan]. I am not aware of the complexities of where they will go and how they will go. “

She said that recruiting “cannot be done all at once.”

“It can be difficult to hire nurses, especially to work in Dublin, which is where I imagine a lot of the extra ICU beds will be. The cost of living in Dublin is very high for people with an average salary.

“The work at the UCI Dublin is satisfying because it is complex work, but there is a challenge there and also a challenge in terms of retaining the UCI staff.”