Hospitals in worse shape now than during Covid
»Top doc’s grim warning »‘Perfect storm’ fears
A HEALTH expert has claimed hospitals are in worse shape now than they were for the Covid-19 surges in late 2020 and 2021.
Cliona Ni Cheallaigh was responding to the Health Minister Stephen Donnelly’s statement that the health service faces a “perfect storm” of Covid and flu infections.
The infectious diseases expert fears the country is “ill-prepared” because hospitals are already under more pressure at this time than they were when going into the last two winters – with presentations already soaring at A&ES.
She said: “It’s difficult going into another winter knowing that the underlying problems are still not fixed.
“We’re still as ill prepared for it now as we were in 2020-2021.
“We don’t have the structural changes that we need to be able to manage that type of pandemic again.”
Hospital staff have been warning since July that a larger than usual number of summer Covid and flu cases were threatening to overwhelm the health service in the colder months.
Some Irish Nurses’ and Midwives’ Organisation members fear a so-called Covid and flu twindemic that would leave them unable to cope.
ARMAGEDDON
Those fears were ratcheted up in the last 72 hours when Irish Association of Emergency Medicine president Dr Fergal Hickey warned on Monday that the health service is at risk of “Armageddon” and “hell on earth” due to a double spike of Covid-19 and the flu.
He warned this doomsday scenario is due to the “potential of the twin tsunamis that are facing us”.
Yesterday, Dr Ni Cheallaigh revealed her own St James’s Hospital in Dublin is experiencing surges of activity that would not be expected at this time of year.
She added: “I think we’re going to see the same problems we see every year in terms of services like home care packages and nursing homes.
“I think we’re seeing insufficient infrastructure.
“It’s very worrying because there’s no leeway in the system, there’s no give.
“We’re set up to always function at 100% and there’s no spare [capability] to meet those surges.”
There’s no leeway in the system, there’s no give
CLIONA NI CHEALLIAGH
DOCTOR YESTERDAY