[ad_1]
When the coronavirus took its first casualty in Northern Ireland on March 19, Prime Minister Arlene Foster said the pandemic required “a united response”, while Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Féin said there was a “collective responsibility” to take care of each other.
et 10 months later and more than 1,100 deaths later, there is political upheaval and an increase in infection rates and hospital admissions, up to four times higher than in the Republic of Ireland, with the finger of blame pointing at a dysfunctional government that is anything but united. Covid wards are packed to the brim, patients wait in carts, and at one point last week 17 ambulances were pulled over in front of a hospital in Co Antrim while the sick were being treated in the car parks.
“It sucks,” said an executive source.
LOST OPPORTUNITY
Health Minister Robin Swann pushed for restrictions to be imposed since late September, but there were growing tensions in the Executive on the matter. Lighter restrictions were imposed in mid-October, but DUP Minister Edwin Poots publicly objected.
On September 24, Swann had presented his executive colleagues with a paper entitled ‘Options to reduce the transmission of Covid-19’ in which he warned of a substantial increase in cases that had gradually accelerated since the beginning of July. He proposed tough new measures, but was unable to garner community support from his fellow executives.
“Too many opportunities have been missed,” said a source who was aware of the discussion.
“Look where we are now. There has been indecision. There has been an open political war. It is only now when reality bites and the death toll is increasing, they are beginning to realize how serious this is,” he said.
In the document, seen by the Sunday Independent, Swann explained how cases had increased in all age groups, particularly younger adults, and how the data at the time suggested that cases and hospital bed occupancies ” they are increasing at a rate of at least 50 percent per week. ” He warned that an increase in intensive care bed use or deaths “is projected to increase after a period of delay once hospital admissions increase.”
He explained that the blockade imposed in Northern Ireland at the end of March resulted in a rapid reduction in transmission of 75% and said that a package of interventions would be required “to prevent an exponential increase in the virus.”
During that meeting, he asked his colleagues to agree to continue “interdepartmental” work for the following week to develop an options package.
It became increasingly clear that a significant part of the DUP was unhappy with the proposed measures to continue the lockdown, which resulted in the party’s lockdown restrictions agreed to a week later.
Then “all hell broke loose” at an Executive meeting on November 12 when Sinn Féin Finance Minister Conor Murphy condemned the level of deaths. “I will not take any Sinn Féin lectures on excess deaths,” Foster is said to have said at the meeting. His colleague from the DUP, Poots, the agriculture minister, criticized the level of restrictions, telling health officials present that such measures “don’t work” and said the problems started when 2,000 people attended the funeral of former IRA volunteer Bobby. Storey in West Belfast in June when the number of people at meetings was severely restricted.
It is a statement shared by executive officials who believe that the tension in relationships caused by Storey’s funeral and the domino effect in some within the DUP has resulted in a breakdown of relations, particularly between Foster and O’Neill.
“We are in this situation because of the funeral of Bobby Storey and the DUP backbenchers that rampaged … we have been stalled ever since,” said a senior executive source.
“Something happened [with] the public mood, something happened [within] politics when, for whatever reason, we were hit by a spike in cases and then executive dysfunction kicked in. “
A second senior source said that Storey’s funeral “decimated the public health message and broke the trust that was in the public and in the Executive,” adding that “equally the behavior of the DUP around the Executive table was a damn disgrace. “
PUBLIC SUPPORT
While politicians have been divided, most people have not. In the predominantly nationalist area of West Belfast, murals have been painted on the walls to support the NHS for a community that does not even remotely praise British.
Now a six-week lockdown will take effect starting at midnight on December 26, when shops, lounges and hospitality sectors will close, while during the first week a curfew will urge people to stay in inside after 8pm Last Friday, Foster claimed that the pending shutdown was due to a “failure of society as a whole”, while O’Neill, who was questioned by the Northern Ireland Police Service for attending Storey’s funeral, stated that “he has never deviated from public health.” Advice”.
Behind the scenes, internal political disputes are muddying the waters. Several DUP politicians are now attempting to overthrow Foster, who has led the party for five years, due in part to the way he has handled the pandemic.
“Arlene is on her last lap,” said a DUP source. “She no longer has our trust, not just around Covid. Her time as a leader is over and six more months of her in charge is too generous.”
Another DUP colleague said there is “a lot of antagonism towards Arlene because she was too soft on Sinn Féin during Storey’s funeral and tried to attract two audiences at once.”
It is a similar story within Sinn Féin, where some of its elected representatives have had “strong exchanges” with O’Neill and believe that she too has reacted to the crisis in a “frightening” way.
“Michelle is not performing well during this and the party members are not happy,” said a source.
After years of underfunding and failed reviews, the Health Department is also not immune to criticism with a minister saying Covid has “made things worse” and accuses Swann of “being a slave to his advisers.”
On the ground, the forecast for this Executive, who returned in January after collapsing three years ago, is not good. Dr Tom Black, who runs a GP on the Derry / Donegal border, said there has been a “total failure of political leadership” during the second wave.
“Where did it all go wrong? It went wrong eight weeks ago when we told you [the politicians] that the measures that were introduced then were too little too late. It is very difficult for political classes to subordinate their sovereignty to a common purpose, even in a pandemic. “
He insisted that this was now going to be “the worst six weeks in history for the health service in Northern Ireland” with “many more sick people, much more suffering and many more deaths than there should have been at this time due to loss”. of control by the political classes ”.
TERRIBLE OPTIONS
In the coming weeks, Dr. Black predicted that healthcare workers will be asked to make decisions about patients “that will challenge our moral and ethical standards.” He explained that 1,900 of health care personnel are sick with a Covid-related illness, and that number will rise.
“We will have to choose and prioritize patients and that is not what we are trained to do.”
Paramedics from the south have been recruited to help this weekend, as significant pressure on emergency departments, general practitioner surgeries and intensive care units worsens the situation.
“You don’t want to get sick in Northern Ireland in the next six weeks and you will need medical attention because our system will be under a lot of pressure,” warned Dr. Black.
Ambulances queued outside every emergency department in the region last Tuesday as they battled pressure from Covid, including the Antrim Area Hospital, where it had around 100 new cases of Covid-19 in a week, its highest peak. high since the pandemic began.
“I’ve never seen the hospital as busy as last Monday night, it was horrible,” said Dr. David Farren, consultant in medical microbiology and infection control at the hospital. “During the Christmas period, there will be a wave of Covid cases that will hit us when we have already been on the defensive. Our emergency departments are busy and there is a line of patients waiting to enter through the back door,” he said.
Along the Fermanagh-Cavan border, Austen Stinson Funeral Home is conducting, on average, one Covid funeral a week and said the true extent of the disease is “coming home to rest.”
“We have seen a notable increase in the last few months of people dying from Covid-19 and there will be more deaths in this area and that worries me,” he said. “There is fear. There is something out there that we cannot see and we do not know what is coming, so it would make sense for us all to sing from the single sheet of a hymn.”
This week, the dispute and political anguish will continue after Education Minister Peter Weir announced yesterday that schools would return in January regardless of the closure.
“This is not going to end well,” said a well-placed source, accepting that Covid-19 is the sticky plaster that holds the Northern Ireland Executive together.
[ad_2]