All hands on deck at Wexford General

WEXFORD General Hospital have issued an urgent ‘all hands on deck’ appeal for available staff after it emerged last week that there was an outbreak of Covid-19 outside of the designated wards.

In a letter circulated among staff late last week, General Manager at the Hospital Lily Byrnes stated that a patient on a non-Covid ward had tested positive for the virus and as a result a major reconfiguration of the hospital was ongoing.

The letter stated that ‘a number of staff who have been close contacts of the patient will be sent home for fourteen days’ and requested that all staff, including those on long term leave, who are willing and able to ‘support the hospital in this crisis’ make themselves known to management immediately. Ms Byrnes thanked the hard-working staff at the hospital for all they are doing in the face of this major challenge.

‘Thank you for your support in this matter,’ she said. ‘I am sure that Wexford General Hospital will get through this as well as we have done so far.’

Clarifying the situation in a statement yesterday, Ms Byrnes said that they were down on staff as a result of contact with a case of Covid-19 on the wards.

‘Most patients who have COVID-19 will have symptoms that can be clearly identified,’ she said. ‘However, on occasion some patients’ symptoms may present more slowly and, in time, it can be identified that they have Covid-19. Where this happens, if staff caring for those patients were doing so on the belief that they did not have the virus, those staff may have to be isolated for fourteen days to minimise the risk to other staff and patients.’

‘This has happened in some cases at Wexford General Hospital and has increased the number of staff unavailable to work in the hospital. However, the hospital continues to function and these measures are precautionary for the protection of staff and patients. In order to further protect patients and staff we have also introduced new measures for the wearing of PPE and droplet precautions at the hospital.’

It is understood that two healthcare workers at the hospital have tested positive for Covid-19, while a host of wards are now classed as ‘covid-contact’.

While the outbreak naturally is a cause for concern, Ms Byrnes says that things are firmly under control and people should still present at hospital if they are feeling seriously unwell.

‘We are continuing to operate with an Emergency Department for general unwell patients and a Repiratory Assessment Unit for Covid-19 or query Covid patients,’ she said. ‘When attending the hospital, you will be met at a Pod where you’ll be asked specific questions to identify which area is appropriate for your care.’

‘We are again reminding patients who may be suffering from heart attack or stroke that they do not delay in contacting 999 in order to come to the Emergency Department.’

While the availaility of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) had been a source of concern nationally, Ms Byrnes said that they are well stocked at Wexford General.

‘As you will know from the national figures, the number of Covid-19 positive patients in Wexford is low in comparison to the national average and the situation remains the same at Wexford General Hospital,’ she said. ‘We have enough PPE and are working with Ireland East Hospital Group and HSE Procurement to ensure that we have a supply chain of PPE on an on-going basis. The hospital is prepared for any increased presentations as further testing occurs and the hospital continues to have capacity in our ICU and continues to have beds for COVID-19 patients.’

To support elderly patients at home, Frailty Clinical Nurse Specialist Karina Somers is providing an exercise and information sheet which is published in this week’s newspaper.

Finally, as frontline staff deal with the added pressure of an outbreak this week, Ms Byrnes has thanked the people of Wexford for their support so far and urged them to please keep adhering to the guidelines set down nationally.

‘We would ask people to continue to adhere to the guidelines - stay at home, wash your hands frequently and don’t touch your face,’ she said. ‘For those over 70 with underlying health problems, please continue to cocoon. The management and staff here at Wexford General would like to thank the local community for their huge support and kindess to us and we will continue to serve and care for those patients with and without Covid-19 to the best of our ability.’