Hospital halts appointments after Covid-19 staff outbreak
A COVID-19 outbreak among hospital staff has meant all outpatient appointments were cancelled in a mid-west hospital from last night.
All non-urgent activity at Nenagh General Hospital has been halted due to high numbers of staff currently off sick or on ‘Covid-related’ time off, where they have been in contact with someone who has tested positive.
The injury unit and all non-urgent medical assessments have been shut down to stem the outbreak.
The Hospital Crisis Management Team at the UL Hospitals Group held an emergency meeting at the weekend and decided to temporarily stand down outpatient clinics at the north Co. Tipperary hospital from yesterday morning.
And to minimise the risk of spreading Covid-19, it is looking to cut the number of members of the public in the hospital.
The shocking development, comes as a further 1,247 confirmed cases of the disease were announced last night nationally, as well as 15 more deaths.
A source at the hospital, who was visibly upset and extremely worried for their own safety yesterday, described the situation as ‘absolutely shocking’ and decried the fact that frontline carers have not yet been given the vaccine.
In a damning indictment of the vaccine’s painfully slow rollout, the source added: ‘Some of our colleagues have also been hospitalised. We should have been vaccinated initially when the vaccine
‘Crying themselves to sleep’
rollout began. I believe we wouldn’t be in this mess if we had been.’
The UL Hospitals Group said in a statement that the situation will be kept under review.
Any outpatient with an appointment will be contacted by the hospital and offered an alternative appointment elsewhere within UL Hospitals Group, which is made up of University Hospital Limerick, University Maternity Hospital Limerick, Ennis Hospital, Nenagh Hospital, Croom Orthopaedic Hospital and St. John’s Hospital Limerick
Until further notice, people requiring treatment for minor injuries are advised to attend injuries units at Ennis Hospital or St John’s Hospital Limerick.
The statement added that the decision was made ‘in the interest of the safety of our patients and staff and of people scheduled to attend appointments in the coming days, as well as the broader population in north Tipperary and the mid-west’.
Earlier this month, doctors and nurses at Nenagh General Hospital issued an appeal for vaccines on social media, pleading in a moving video addressed to Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to ramp up the rollout.
Frustrated by the lack of inoculation, medics said they have seen non-frontline staff getting the jab before them in recent weeks, admitting they are ‘crying themselves to sleep’ over fears they could infect their families with Covid-19.
The source added: ‘The majority of the staff are out Covid positive… the staffing levels are very poor at the moment. If we were prioritised in the beginning of the rollout of the vaccines, we wouldn’t be in this position right now.’
They also admitted that they will ‘not sleep a wink tonight’ before going into work, due to fears of catching the virus and bringing it home to vulnerable family members.
A spokeswoman for the HSE hospital group said to date, 154 staff in Nenagh General Hospital have been vaccinated – approximately half of the overall staff employed at the hospital.
All recipients of the first dose of the Pfizer BioNtech vaccine require a second dose, and last week, administration of the second dose began. At close of business on January 27, 863 Dose 2 vaccinations had been completed.
She added: ‘Since vaccination began on January 4th for healthcare workers across the mid-west, and residents and staff of Long Term Residential Care settings in the region, our vaccination teams have delivered a total of 5,020 Pfizer BioNtech Dose 1 vaccinations.’
As of 2pm yesterday, 1,516 Covid-19 patients were hospitalised, of which 211 were in Intensive Care Units. In the previous 24 hours, there had been 39 additional hospitalisations.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony
Holohan has urged employers to ensure that workplaces here are safe if working from home is not possible.
‘There is an onus on employers to ensure that, in the first instance, staff are encouraged to work from home and in cases where that is not possible, that their workplaces are safe for staff and customers and in full compliance with infection prevention and control measures,’ Dr Holohan said.
Meanwhile, HSE chief Paul Reid urged the public to ‘hold strong’ as we enter into a new month, adding that this year will be our ‘exit route’.
He wrote on Twitter: ‘It’s the end of a really tough January and a full year planning & dealing with #COVID19. Some things we’ve got right some wrong, and others we’ll do differently.
‘We all want 2021 to be our exit route and it will. Hold strong for now.’
Many hospitals across the country have seen appointments disruption in the past year due to surges in Covid-19 cases.
‘We all want 2021 to be our exit route’