Health system facing 'most difficult winter for many years'

Paul Reid said there were just 11 adult ICU beds available as of this morning, and none available for children. File Picture: Sasko Lazarov / Photocall Ireland

The chief executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE) has said the country’s health system is facing "the most difficult winter for years".

Pressure from Covid-19 is forcing some hospitals to cancel or scale back scheduled surgeries and elective care.

Paul Reid said the number of patients in hospital with the virus — 450 nationwide as of this morning, with 98 in intensive care — was putting “immense pressure” on the health service. He said he expected these figures to rise over this weekend.

Mr Reid said six hospital groups and “about 20 hospitals” have had to postpone certain non-Covid procedures as a result.

"The resulting impact is, in terms of elective care, a number of hospitals have had to take decisions to cease elective care for some points of time,” he said. 

Hospitals in Cork, Galway, Limerick, Navan, and Wexford, and a couple of children's hospitals had already been affected, he said

“We are beginning to see the pressure and the resourcing that's required to address Covid impact on non-Covid care and particularly elective care,” he told RTÉ Radio this morning.

This is going to be probably one of the most difficult winters we faced for many years

Speaking about ICU capacity, Mr Reid said there were just 11 adult ICU beds available as of this morning, and none available for children.

Staffing issues were adding to the overall pressure faced by the HSE, he said. 

At present, 1,800 healthcare staff are off work with Covid, or because they were a close contact of a confirmed case.

Vaccines

Mr Reid went on to say that around 57% of the people in ICUs were not fully vaccinated, which was having “a strong impact.” 

"Talking to consultants in intensive care, they are seeing younger unvaccinated people in the 30-40 age group and, sadly, some deaths under the age of 25,” he said.

He urged anyone who had not yet received a vaccine to come forward.

"The severity of Covid is something none of us should understate,” he said.

The HSE CEO said this was "a difficult period" but not one that couldn't be overcome

"We can turn this around. As quickly as this turned around badly for us, we can turn it around positively," he added.