Mitigation efforts helped ease crowding in hospitals, says Cork GP

A CORK GP has suggested that mitigation measures introduced at hospitals in Cork have helped to ease pressures at the facilities.

It comes as the Health Service Executive (HSE) yesterday reiterated its warning to people not to attend emergency departments unless necessary.

The HSE said a number of hospitals were experiencing very high levels of activity due to high illness rates related to winter viruses, adding that, as of 8am yesterday, there were 272 patients on trolleys.

Of these patients, 12 were in Cork University Hospital, a significant decrease from this day last week when there were 46 people on trolleys in the hospital.

Five admitted patients were waiting for beds at the Mercy University Hospital, down from 18 last Tuesday.

Damien McCallion, the HSE’s chief operations officer, said yesterday that a number of surge measures have been put in place as part of the HSE Urgent and Emergency Care Plan to reduce the number of patients waiting on trolleys for a bed and reduce the number of patients over the age of 75 waiting in emergency departments after a decision has been made to admit them.

“Those who believe they may be seriously ill and require emergency care should come to hospital, but we would ask others who are not seriously ill to consider seeking support from pharmacists, GPs, GP out-of-hours services, and injury units,” he said.

John Sheehan, a GP and Fianna Fáil councillor for Cork City North West, said influenza, covid, RSV, and other respiratory viruses seem to have plateaued over the last few weeks and are now easing off.

“A number of mitigation measures have been put in place, the delaying of elective surgeries freed up some capacity in CUH and also in South Infirmary, who postponed a number of surgeries, which allowed them to take overflow from CUH,” he told The Echo.

Dr Sheehan said the HSE partnership with Affidea, whereby it treats injuries, and GPs offering additional clinics, also helped take some pressure off, adding “there were a lot of senior decision-makers on wards and on floors the last couple of weeks, who were able to discharge people who were fit to be discharged.”

Dr Sheehan said Ireland has the highest life expectancy in Europe, “but we have to be prepared for the strain an older population can put on the health service — any one person on a trolley is totally undesirable.

“As a GP, trying to persuade someone to go to hospital when they have heard about all the people on trolleys is very hard,” he said. “Nobody wants to be in hospital, especially on a trolley and, for the elderly in particular, it can be very traumatic.”