'Cork deserves credit': Doctor praises county's achievement in crushing Covid cases

However, Dr Niamh Lynch said she was concerned about the lower numbers of patients presenting to hospitals and GPs with other illnesses

Dr Niamh Lynch said that while Cork’s current low incidence-rate was impressive, there was always more work to be done. File Picture: Andy Gibson

A Bon Secours doctor has said that Cork people deserve huge credit for doing their part to suppress Covid-19 in the city and county.

Dr Niamh Lynch said the fact that a city and county the size of Cork was now seeing Covid-19 case-numbers comparable to those of Kilkenny and Kerry was "a massive achievement."

Part of the reason for this, Dr Lynch suspected, was Cork people’s high level of adherence to public health measures.

"We are good at wearing our masks and respecting social distancing.

"We are doing all of the things that we are being asked to do, we are following all of the rules.

Speaking to 96fm’s Opinion Line with PJ Coogan, Dr Lynch said that while Cork’s current low incidence-rate was impressive, there was always more work to be done.

If we continue to crush it, Cork will have earned its next level - it will have earned its step towards level 4.

Dr Lynch said she wasn’t sure the same could be said for other counties and she wasn't sure how it would work if some counties were permitted to come out of lockdown sooner than others.

While falling positivity and hospitalisation rates were positive signs, Dr Lynch said she was concerned about the lower numbers of patients presenting to hospitals and GPs with other illnesses.

Dr Niamh Lynch, paediatrician at the Bon Secours hospital, Cork. Picture: Denis Scannell

Dr Lynch said that some of her colleagues - particularly in areas like cardiology and oncology - were worried that they hadn’t seen the numbers of patients with cancer or cardiac diseases they would normally see over the course of the year.

"It's horrible to think that there are patients at home, afraid to go to the doctor or to the hospital."

Dr Lynch encouraged anyone with symptoms of illnesses like these not to delay going to a doctor. 

"I’d encourage anyone with symptoms to please get checked out because we are facing a massive wave of other things."

She said people being nervous about presenting at hospitals when Covid-19 cases were so high late last year and earlier this year was "understandable." 

"That is not the case now," she said.

If you have a health worry, a niggle, something that’s at the back of your mind, please go to your doctor.

"It could be the difference between getting an early diagnosis and a late diagnosis, and we all know what that means."