Cancer, heart cases prioritised as non-Covid care set to resume

CANCER and heart disease patients are being prioritised as the HSE aims to restart routine hospital care after weeks of postponed appointments due to the coronavirus crisis.

HSE chief Paul Reid said cancer surgery, chemotherapy, urgent specialist cardiology procedures, cardiovascular surgery, as well as patients in need of neurosurgery and liver transplants will be first in line with greater use of facilities in private hospitals.

It comes as the deaths of 12 more people from Covid-19 were announced yesterday.

There are now almost 23,000 confirmed cases of the virus here.

The HSE also plans to resume mental health services in the community for children and adults, as well as bringing back community staff such as public health nurses.

It is also proposed to restore home support services and respite care.

GPs will be freed up to cater for more non-Covid patients as infected people will be looked after in special hubs, said Mr Reid.

He warned, however, it will be challenging, because public hospitals can only work at 80pc of capacity in order to be Paul Reid said hospitals would not be at full capacity ready for a second flare-up of the coronavirus.

“It cannot be the same as before,” he said.

Private hospitals, which have been temporarily taken over by the State, are still around 50pc idle, although some public patients have been treated there, including cancer patients.

So far, 289 of the 600 fully private consultants have signed a temporary HSE contract and more will do so this week, he added.

The future remains uncertain despite the slowing down of the virus, and it could be very “bumpy”, he cautioned.

A major expense will be personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare settings, and it is set to cost €1bn this year.

There is a demand for nine million face masks a week alone. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has secured a further supply of face masks from South Korea after contacting President Moon Jae-in.

Referring to the coronavirus testing regime, Mr Reid said it will be capable of carrying out 15,000 tests a day this week, ramping up to 100,000 a week from May 18.

Responding to ongoing criticism of delays and also the slowness in alerting contacts of a person who tests positive, he said the average time it takes now to be called for a swab is the same day or next day.

The time it takes from giving a swab to completion of analysis in the lab is 2.4 days.