Row over alleged under-reporting of Covid-19 figures leave HSE and Mater hospital at loggerheads

A row over the alleged under-reporting of Covid-19 infections at one of the country’s largest hospitals has descended into a game of finger-pointing with the HSE and the hospital in question apparently at loggerheads.

On Thursday evening the chair of the National Public Health Emergency Team Dr Tony Holohan informed the public that a hospital had under-reported the number of its infections by a figure of 244.

Dr Holohan said at the time that he “would be surprised” if the issue was replicated at other hospitals, and that he didn’t believe any deaths were involved as part of the under-reporting.

Amid rumours that the hospital in question was the Mater on Dublin’s northside, that hospital today released a statement saying that it had “at all times… provided the information that the HSE required and met all legal requirements to report infectious diseases”.

“All of this information is correct and up to date. We are working with the HSE to understand why the provided data may not have been accurately captured,” the statement said.

It’s understood that privately senior officials at the hospital are extremely unhappy at the manner in which blame has been laid at their hospital’s door, with the impression at that level being that the misunderstanding is an issue for which the HSE is to blame.

The HSE itself said it is “not in a position to confirm whether the hospital did or did not report”.

“That is a matter that is currently under review with the IEHG (Ireland East Hospital Group) Group and the Mater Hospital,” a spokesperson said.

Dr Holohan on Thursday had suggested that he believed the issue related to occupational health - in other words, that the issue related to staff infections and not patients.

However, the Mater today said that more than 300 - a figure far in excess of that revealed by Dr Holohan - of its staff have thus far tested positive for the coronavirus, with a further 1,500 having self-isolated.

It said that comprehensive contact tracing on all of its staff who had tested positive had been carried out in line with best practice.

At the start of May the Mater had by some distance the highest number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 of any acute hospital as reported by the HSE.

The issue is the latest sign of strain in the relationship between the Department of Health and NPHET and the HSE itself, after it emerged HSE chief executive Paul Reid had expressed deep displeasure at Dr Holohan’s decision to announce a target of 100,000 virus tests per week in mid April.

Louise O’Reilly, Sinn Fein’s spokeswoman on health, said “we need to know that when figures are given that the numbers are accurate” before calling for all entities within the health service to clarify that they’re reporting all that they are expected to.

“If there is even a hint that we don’t have all the information then it is very worrying, particularly for those workers heading back to work on Monday next because they’ve been told that it’s safe to do so,” she added.