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Twenty-six of the 28 residents of a Co Galway nursing home tested positive for Covid-19, a local GP said.
Dr. Martin Daly, a general practitioner for one-third of the nursing home residents, said he was contacted Thursday morning by a home nurse who was “extremely upset and desperate” and who had been caring for the 28 residents for the last 72 hours with just three other employees.
The facility in question, the Nightingale Nursing Home in Ballinasloe, has been contacted for comment. A comment has also been requested from the HSE.
Dr. Daly said one resident died Wednesday, “probably from a Covid-related illness,” while another resident was admitted to the hospital Thursday.
“A resident of a nursing home was admitted to the hospital last Thursday for a non-Covid illness, reportedly testing positive for Covid. The entire nursing home, which was the 28 residents and all staff, was then tested. 26 of the 28 residents tested positive over the weekend and all but four of the staff tested positive, ”he told The Irish Times on Thursday.
“The situation lies in the moment in which in the last 72 hours, there is a nurse, a care assistant and a person who prepares the food and another caregiver trying to provide care to 28 vulnerable elderly without an immediate prospect of relief with more personal.
“They have appealed to the HSE and have been told that there are no personnel available even in these emergency circumstances.
“One person died yesterday, probably from a Covid-related illness and another person has been admitted to the hospital today very ill, most likely with a Covid-related illness.”
Dr. Daly said that he had contacted the HSE, as did local TD Denis Naughten, who said that the HSE had said there was no prospect of relief.
“That’s not good enough,” Dr. Daly later said on RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show. The HSE needed to redeploy staff immediately. Patients had to be transferred, as it was unfair to leave the nurse alone in case she too became ill.
It can’t be that an organization with 120,000 employees can’t provide nursing home relief, he said.
“The building is on fire, they need to react. These are vulnerable elderly patients. They deserve every opportunity to be cared for in their time of need.
“This is your hour of need.”
Dr Day said that he was seeing many positive Covid cases among students in the area where he works in his general practice and at the Covid care center in Athlone. “What we are seeing now far exceeds the levels seen in March, April and May.”
Mr Naughten said he had spoken directly to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly on Thursday saying that he had asked him to “intervene directly”.
In the Dáil on Thursday, independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice said that seven of the eight nursing staff and 10 of the 11 care assistants had tested positive for Covid-19. He said that when the director of nursing called the HSE they told them “don’t panic, look for agency personnel. But there are no agency staff. “
He said the HSE promised to send staff Thursday morning to the home in its Roscommon-Galway constituency “and no one showed up.”
Mr. Fitzmaurice said that “this nursing home is considering having to send the rest of the residents to a hospital because the HSE did not send staff.”
He said that he was contacted by the home’s nursing director “who was distraught, felt helpless and cried because they couldn’t do anything because they were isolating themselves.”
Mr. Naughten told Dáil that the nursing home was now being run for the past three days by a cook and two other staff members. He called for a panel of staff to be set up to go to a nursing home to deal with these cases, so that they are not repeated and these residents are not left in a deplorable situation.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said he had no knowledge of the case, but would investigate it immediately after this Dáil session and was “reassured” to hear that the Minister of Health “is on the case”.
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