Irish hospitals are 'not fit for purpose' - medic

Dr Rónán Collins said Irish hospitals are "old" and "not built with infection control nor indeed necessarily with the needs of older people who were a major user of our hospitals in mind".

A leading medic has said that Irish hospitals "are just not fit for purpose anymore", as he hit out at the lack of facilities for healthcare staff.

Dr Rónán Collins, a specialist in geriatric and stroke medicine at Tallaght Hospital, said health staff should have facilities to shower in and out of work as a basic infection control mechanism.

He said that while working in a pharmaceutical production facility as a student, he showered and changed before work and again after finishing.

He explained that the reason was that they were working in an environment where "you're dealing with potentially dangerous substances" and you showered regularly so as not to bring that home.

"That doesn't happen in our hospitals," said Dr Collins, who was speaking to Katie Hannon on RTÉ radio.

In fact, most of our hospitals don't have facilities where people can shower and change and go onto the ward areas. And similarly to come back out.

"And I think that whole notion of infection control within hospitals needs to change."

Dr Collins said Irish hospitals are "old" and "not built with infection control nor indeed necessarily with the needs of older people who were a major user of our hospitals in mind".

The medic was also critical of the waiting list situation saying that while it was always serious, "it's probably frightening now".

The pandemic, along with an ageing population, means there is increased demand on the health service, he said.

"We do not have enough hospital beds in our system," said Dr Collins, who added that while the pandemic has exacerbated things the situation with waiting lists had been known about for some time.

"There is not enough resources in terms of hospital beds to get through and additional facilities to get through the waiting lists."

Dr Collins said that the health service also does not have enough healthcare manpower in place.

We still have staff shortages at times with regard to nursing even for example on our wards, but particularly with regard to your consultant level. There's a shortage of staff.

"And I think that problem is not easily solved, because even if you hire loads of people they can't do their job is to don't have the resource.

He said that the Health Department's Secretary General's Task Force on the waiting list will be a bandage for what is a significant problem.

On the decision of Nphet to remove mask-wearing from almost all environments, the medic said the risk of wearing one should be balanced by the public.

He added that masks had some implications in his practice for some older people with communication becoming problematic.

"Because for many of us as our hearing deteriorates as we start to get older, we kind of subconsciously have learned to lip read."

Dr Collins said that Nphet seems to be reflecting WHO advice, adding people are going to exercise their judgement and that was "entirely appropriate".

The majority of the opinion in the medical community would be supportive of the Nphet discussion, he added.