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The imposition of tighter Covid-19 restrictions will only work if there is compliance by the public, warned a leading consultant in intensive care.
The comments come as the government is expected to announce a change to a combination of levels 4 and 5 of its Living with Covid Plan later today.
Dr Colman O’Loughlin said the “fear factor” is now missing, which was present during the first wave of the virus in the spring.
Supports increased restrictions, he said But such increased restrictions will only work if there is high compliance from the public.
The director of Intensive Care Medicine at Mater Hospital also expressed concern about staffing levels in intensive care units.
There are well-designed plans for where intensive care or intensive care beds can be found in the event of a sudden surge, but the problem is a lack of additional staff, he said.
It takes up to six months to train an intensive care nurse, he added.
The HSE has augmentation plans in all hospitals that can identify where the beds and ventilators are, “but we don’t know where the staff are.”
Some staff members who had started their ICU training in April and May returned to their regular nursing duties over the summer.
The nurses were busy with postoperative care and couldn’t be brought in for training, he explained.
There was “a great deal of sacrifice” on the part of patients for whom elective procedures were postponed, which had eased the pressure of intensive care in the spring, he said.
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