HSE isolates 1,200 people at CityWest Covid-19 facility since April

The average length of stay was nine days, the HSE said. Pictured are (left to right) Anne O’Connor, Chief Operations Officer at the HSE, Paul Reid, HSE CEO, and Dr Sarah Doyle Consultant in Public Health Medicine at the HSE in the Conference Centre at Citywest Hotel Dublin in April. Picture: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland.

Just over 1,200 people used Covid-19 isolation facilities at CityWest Hotel, Dublin, during the past four months, prompting calls for greater clarity on the need for the facility, and associated costs, into the future.

The hotel was partially turned into a 750-bed isolation facility in April as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold across the country and the health service sought additional capacity to deal with a potential surge in infections.

The HSE agreed a contract with the hotel owners to lease the facility for seven months at a cost of €21m to provide a safe environment for people to self-isolate and minimise the spread of the virus in the community.

Today, the HSE confirmed the isolation facilities have so far accommodated 1,230 people, who were confirmed or suspected to have Covid-19, or were a close contact of someone who had tested positive for the virus.

The numbers include the admission of 774 members of the public to general self-isolation facilities opened on April 1, as well as the admission of 456 healthcare staff to dedicated isolation facilities, which opened two months later, on June 1.

Weekly occupancy figures furnished separately by the HSE, in response to a parliamentary question by Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy, show the number of people accommodated peaked at the end of April when 114 people were self-isolating at the facility between April 27 and May 3.

The weekly occupancy figures also show that numbers fell thereafter before beginning to rise again in late July and early August.

The average length of stay was nine days, the HSE said.

It is not yet clear, however, if the HSE intends to review or terminate the contract due to expire in October, prompting calls for the health service to clarify its intended use into the future.

Ms Murphy said the contract shouldn’t be rolled over and would have to take account of current circumstances and a flagging tourism sector.

“In the early stages of the pandemic, there was an understandable rush to build capacity into the system. Based on what is now known, much better terms on any future contract should be possible,” Ms Murphy told the Irish Examiner.

“In the absence of a vaccine or effective therapies, it’s difficult to see how tourism will return so hotel facilities such as CityWest are not in high demand, yet the contract suggests otherwise."

Ms Murphy said the facility could possibly have been used to a greater degree than it was, in particular for people self-isolating in cramped conditions, such as residents of direct provision.

“Greater clarity is needed in terms of what the HSE assesses as need, based on what has happened in recent months. We can see from the figures provided that the numbers have tracked the prevalence of the virus; when there was very low incidence there was very little usage,” Ms Murphy said.

“The HSE has changed the relationship with the private hospitals so you would expect that they will look at similar changes in relation to the CityWest facility. More clarity is needed from the HSE in relation to what they believe the requirement will be and what arrangements they are entering into."