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THE HSE HAS said three of the country’s acute hospitals are under “significant pressure” due to Covid-19 outbreaks resulting in staff shortages, the closure of wards and the step-back of elective care.
In Limerick, there are 161 staff out of work today either due to a positive test or because they are a close contact of a confirmed case. The majority of these staff are from University Hospital Limerick and the HSE is expecting these numbers to increase as all staff are now being tested.
There are also 77 staff unavailable for work today at Naas General Hospital and there is a significant outbreak at Letterkenny Hospital.
At the HSE’s weekly Covid-19 update, CEO Paul Reid said hospitals are “losing a lot of staff on shifts”.
Reid said it has led to a knock-in effect on wards being out of action, with five wards in University Hospital Limerick closed due to staff shortages. He said some hospitals have had to step back or cease elective care and some medical and surgical wards have had to be closed.
“In one case [Naas General] it’s probably back to where we were in April in terms of the hospital just dealing with critical and urgent care,” Reid said.
“The reason I say all of this is to express how fragile it always is and as long as the virus is in our community we are at high risk in our healthcare systems. And it can change very quickly. These hospitals today are under very, very significant pressure.”
He said there is a concern about the numbers and trends in Donegal, which hasn’t seen the same level of decline in transmission as other parts of the country.
“We saw in the early phases in October the pressure point on our three border hospitals – particularly Cavan and Letterkenny – were quite significant and Letterkenny hasn’t really recovered since then, it’s still seeing the impact of the high level of transmission in Donegal,” Reid said.
He confirmed that there is a procedure in place whereby a healthcare worker who is a close contact can return to work after just five days of isolation if all other resourcing options have been exhausted and they are needed in the hospital. This does not include those who have had a positive test or anyone who is symptomatic.
Reid said that while transmission numbers in the community are showing clear signs of coming down across the country, hospital numbers are stabilising but not falling.
He said the health service is not seeing the kind of reduction in hospitalisations and ICU admissions of Covid-19 patients that it would have liked to see in recent weeks. Today there are 287 patients with Covid-19 in hospital, with 39 of those in ICU.
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If a driver hits a bridge they should have their licence revoked for a minimum of 6 months, and the cost of the repair should be billed to the driver’s employer. Any recurring incidents should be met with a more lengthy licence suspension.
@Alberto Balsam: some chance of that. A HGV driver crushed a cyclist causing them life changing injuries because he didn’t check his mirror before moving h off. Last week Judge Martin Nolan didn’t see cause to even disqualify him from driving.
All bridges have clearance height signs on them,and as a professional truck driver they are required to know the height of their vehicle. This is careless driving and should be punishable offence paid for by the driver and company responsible.
How about this for a radical idea, erect heavy duty steel goal posts braced with a cross bar and 45° angle bracing against the direction of travel, positioned at 50 metres from, or just after the last possible alternative route from each side of low bridges, set at the exact bridge height, so drivers that don’t know their trailer height hit those first.
@Dvsespaña: it has been recommended to DCC and Fingal Country Council and they both chose to ignore the advice.
@Dvsespaña: ah stop now, using a simple easy solution is not the way of any government or council in this country. Where are the years of consulting fees and committee payments going to materialize from then???
Why not have a system I have seen in France. Before the bridge have a heavy plastic/ rubber curtain across the road the same height as the upcoming bridge and if your vehicle hits that you know you won’t get under the bridge.This allows you time to stop.
Solution: stop vehicles hitting bridge.
@Sherry Adams – Norn Iron Drag Artiste: burn those bridges.
@Sherry Adams – Norn Iron Drag Artiste: Close the pubs
Engineers will still have to inspect the bridge so the delay won’t be much shorter.
We all get distracted while out and about it human nature, really 100 meters away from a bridge should be an automatic boom gate that will only open if you below the hight restriction.
Build better infrastructure.
@Foscam Dl: do you mean higher bridges.
@paulie: No. Lower roads.!
Most hit bridge in the country is in Portlaoise, but no let’s start with Dublin. Ya couldn’t even make this up
@DvdF: not to minimise your local
Issue, but impact is greater in Dublin
@DvdF: actually the most hit bridge is in Mulhuddart in Fingal.
Groundbreaking
Cameras are no substitute for proper safety inspection after a bridge has been hit.
have your say