Taskforce to discuss hospital overcrowding next week for first time since September
Last week, just 277 RSV cases were identified, according to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre. Flu cases dropped to 1,573 last week from 3,079 in early January.
The Emergency Department Taskforce will meet on Tuesday to discuss the overcrowding crisis for the first time since September.
This comes as numbers of Covid-19 patients in hospitals are falling, although 30 cases of the Omicron sub-variant known as Kraken have now been identified here, according to chief medical officer Professor Breda Smyth. Separate data shows new cases of influenza and RSV are also decreasing.
Unlike the HSE crisis management team, the taskforce includes trade unions and patient advocates as well as Department of Health and HSE officials. Irish Patients Association’s Stephen McMahon welcomed the invitation from the HSE.
“This continues to be the most challenging winter in our hospitals for patients and staff,” he said. “It will be many months before we know the true impact of the overcrowding.” He called for a focus on solutions to deliver “safe and timely care” to patients.
“It is only by working together and not being in silos that we can achieve the necessary reforms,” he said. “What we want to know is who has been affected the most, what actions are being taken and what actions will be taken for the thousands of people whose operations have been cancelled.”
The most recent waiting lists show over 580,000 waiting on out-patient appointments, measured before this latest crisis.
Sinn Féin health spokesman, David Cullinane, criticised the absence of the taskforce from this winter’s crisis during a special sitting of the Oireachtas Health Committee on Tuesday.
This comes as new Covid data shows just 279 people in hospital with the virus on Thursday, down from 692 on January 2. Prof. Smyth said during late December “a significant number of cases of hospital-acquired infection” occurred.
She reported: “More confirmed cases identified through PCR testing in laboratories in the seven days to 10th January, compared with the preceding seven days.”
In her latest available report to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, dated January 13, she said levels of influenza were also “very high” at the start of the year.
More recent data, published Wednesday, indicates an improving outlook. Last week, just 277 RSV cases were identified, according to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre. Flu cases dropped to 1,573 last week from 3,079 in early January.
