Munster hospital group cancels all elective work

Cork University Hospital, Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan

The South/South West Hospital Group, which includes Cork University Hospital, has cancelled all elective work and said critically ill patients may be transferred between hospitals as the Covid-19 surge continues.

This comes as ten staff at a mental health unit in Cork are ill with Covid-19. Some, who isolated at a hotel under an HSE agreement while waiting on test results, were asked to leave on testing positive.

Hospitals in the South/ South West include CUH, University Hospital Kerry and University Hospital Waterford.

A spokeswoman said: “Due to the rapid increase in the number of patients with confirmed Covid-19 being admitted to hospitals all elective work has been suspended across the Group, aside from emergency surgery and only time critical elective cancer surgeries are being scheduled.” 

An adult mental health unit on the grounds of Cork University Hospital is run by the HSE Cork/ Kerry community services and the Psychiatric Nurses Association represents some nurses in the unit.

A PNA spokesman said: “There are about ten staff who have tested positive for Covid-19, they are out. The HSE is pulling in staff from other areas.” SIPTU shop steward Des McSweeney said issues around where the ill staff members could isolate have caused distress and confusion.

Since April the HSE has hired rooms at the Kingsley Hotel and other sites for healthcare staff who cannot stay at home, including direct provision residents who work in nursing homes.

A hotel spokesman said: “Those protocols do not allow HSE staff to remain at the hotel should they test positive. If HSE workers test positive their care continues under HSE protocols at another site.” But the only accommodation for health workers with Covid-19 who cannot isolate at home is CityWest in Dublin, according to the HSE.

This follows days of confusion around where staff in these units can get vaccinated.

Some staff at the Cork unit were vaccinated at CUH last week, but others were told to apply directly to the HSE.

A spokeswoman for CUH initially said the unit does not come under the hospital’s remit.

But the HSE later clarified that any unit co-located on a hospital grounds should send their staff to that hospital for vaccination.

A HSE spokeswoman said: “South/SouthWest Hospital Group is taking the lead in vaccinating healthcare staff and Cork Kerry Community Healthcare is taking the lead in vaccinating residents in residential care facilities.” Many residents at the Cork unit are over-65, making them as vulnerable to the virus as nursing home residents.