Masks in certain settings need to come back immediately

Last evening (Wednesday) that figure at 8pm stood at 53 patients at LUH being treated for Covid-19. There were no patients that required admission to the hospital's ICU/high dependency unit.

placeholder image — Last evening (Wednesday) that figure at 8pm stood at 53 patients at LUH being treated for Covid-19. There were no patients that required admission to the hospital's ICU/high dependency unit.

Call comes as LUH had second highest number of Covid 19 patients earlier in the week

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has demanded immediate additional public health measures to deal with the impact of rising Covid cases in hospitals.

The call comes as Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH) registered the second highest number of Covid patients in the country, next to Limerick, earlier in the week.

Sixty-one patients were receiving treatment at LUH, while University Hospital Limerick was treating 63 patients, as of 8pm on Tuesday night yesterday.

Eleven of the Letterkenny Covid patients had been admitted in the previous 24 hour period.

In terms of non Covid admissions, LUH saw 19 admitted patients waiting on trolley beds, 17 of whom were located in the hospital’s emergency department earlier in the morning.

This Thursday morning, 18 admitted patients were waiting on trolley beds, 14 of those patients were again located in the Emergency Department, with the remining four located on other wards within the hospital.

The INMO claims that all 29 emergency departments nationally that nurses are currently working in are completely unsafe and overcrowded environment and not knowing the scale of Covid in our EDs is only making the situation worse.

Must be introduced

Mask wearing in indoor and congregated settings must be introduced alongside a strong public health campaign, they say.

June also saw another three Covid related deaths in Donegal, bringing the total number of people whose deaths have been attributed or linked to Covid, to 264.

Commenting on the need for new public health measures to deal with the latest escalation of Covid cases, INMO President, Karen McGowan, who is a native of Arranmore Island, and working in Dublin said:

“As a nurse in an extremely busy emergency department where Covid hospitalisations are quite high, I can say with confidence that the pressure that all nurses, midwives and other healthcare workers are under at the moment is unsustainable.

“The rate at which we are seeing infections rise in our hospitals is extremely worrying.

INMO President and Donegal native Karen McGowan

“From May 29 to July 4, we have seen Covid hospitalisations increase from 198 to 885, a 347% increase. The INMO Executive have taken the decision to call on the interim Chief Medical Officer and the HSE's Chief Clinical Officer to advise Government and the HSE on additional measures that can be taken to alleviate the pressure that is on the health system.

“These include the reintroduction of immediate Covid screening upon arrival of patients to EDs, strengthening advice around mask wearing, a second booster for healthcare workers and improved ventilation in healthcare settings.

St Peregrine relic permanently gifted to Rossnowlagh's Franciscan Friary

“As an INMO Executive, we know anecdotally that Covid is seriously impacting our rosters but as the HSE no longer publish the levels of healthcare workers infected with Covid by profession this makes it impossible to know the exact scale of the problem. We cannot adequately plan for what Covid might look like in our hospitals at what is traditionally the busiest period of the year during November, December, and January if we don’t know the scale of the problem now during an abnormally busy time,” she said.