Hospitals feel the strain of severe weather

HOSPITAL emergency departments were further stretched over Christmas because of the number of people injured after falling on icy roads and footpaths, new figures show.

Six major acute hospitals across the country experienced an overall 9% increase in the number of people attending their emergency departments during the week up to Sunday December 27:

*University College Hospital Galway, 22%.

* Tallaght Hospital, Dublin, 7%.

* Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, 4%.

* Mater Hospital, Dublin, 15%

* Connolly Hospital, Naas, Co Kildare, 25%.

* Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, 2%.

HSE national director for acute hospitals John Hennessy said many hospitals had increased the number of orthopaedic theatre sessions to deal with the increase in patients with fractures.

“From midnight on Christmas Day, the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick reported a total of 55 fractures in a 24-hour period, a figure they would normally see over the course of a week,” he said.

Cork University Hospital was doing up to four times more orthopaedic theatre sessions over Christmas week than it would expect to do at that time of year.

Met Éireann forecaster Evelyn Cusack warned that the very cold, frosty weather would continue this week and through the weekend. “There will be severe frosts and snow showers are likely. “The last time we had weather similar to this was back in 1963.”

Today will be very cold with sunny spells and scattered wintry showers, according to Met Éireann.

After overnight temperatures plummeting to minus 5ºC, frost and ice would clear very slowly with top temperatures between zero and plus 4ºC.

Ms Cusack said it was unusual for frost and ice not to lift during the day. She also said temperatures reached minus 10º C in a number of places across the country last week, particularly in the midlands and northwest.

Met Éireann said it was the coldest December for 28 years. And despite the cold snap, record lows have not been reached yet.

The lowest ever in Ireland was minus 19.1ºC at Markree Castle, Co Sligo, on January 16, 1881, while the lowest observed 20th century air temperature was minus 18.8ºC recorded at Lullymore, Co Kildare on January 2, 1979.

AA Roadwatch is urging motorists to continue to exercise extreme care on all secondary routes.

Lesser-used roads and roads around housing estates remained treacherous yesterday, with gardaí closing off two entrances to estates in Lucan, Co Dublin, with residents having to use alternative access points.

A spokeswoman for AA Roadwatch said motorists appeared to be heeding the warnings about driving slowly. “There have been fewer collisions than we would have expected, so the message is getting through.”

The AA said the service experienced its busiest ever day for breakdowns, with over 700 calls for assistance received by lunchtime yesterday. AA director of policy Conor Faughnan said battery failure was blamed for the extraordinary volume of breakdown calls.

The National Roads Authority has said gritting is being carried out on many roads, but urges motorists not to be complacent.

Urban and inter-city bus routes were operating, but there were some delays and changes to Bus Eireann routes to take account of the weather.

Meanwhile, Age Action is urging people to look out for their older neighbours, friends and relatives.

Age Action received calls from older people yesterday who had not been able to leave their homes for up to four weeks because of the icy conditions and untreated footpaths.

“While local authorities have worked to make the main roads safe, footpaths, especially in residential areas, remain treacherous,” said Age Action spokesman, Eamon Timmins.

Mr Timmins said no one would have adequate food and medical supplies to enable them to get through this wintry weather.

“Unless their friends, neighbours and relatives contact them, some older people could find themselves in real difficulty.”

Fine Gael TD Deirdre Clune has urged Social Affairs Minister Mary Hanafin to consider providing emergency fuel allowance payments to vulnerable people, particularly older people, who have become prisoners in their own homes.

The Simon Community is urging people to donate money to help them look after the homeless during the freezing weather. The head of Simon’s Galway office, Marlene O’Connor, said their services were very stretched at the moment.

“We see an increase in the number of people using our day centre to get out of the cold weather and to get hot food and comfort,” she said.