Did the country move from Level 3 restrictions to five without adequate preparation? Although many hospitals in Ireland have beds, the reality is that there are not enough staff to care for patients.
The Director of Critical Care Medicine at the parent hospital expressed concern about the level of staffing in the intensive care units. Authorities have planned to find critical care or intensive care beds in the event of a surge in the number of patients. But he said the real problem was the lack of additional staff.
Intensive care consultant Dr. Colman O’Loughlin said that it can take up to six months to train an intensive care nurse. The HSE has surge plans in place in all hospitals which can identify where beds and ventilators are. But O’Loughlin added that they just dont’t not know where the staff are.
Dr. O’Loughlin said some of the staff who started ICU training in April and May returned to regular nursing duty during the summer. He also said the nurses could not be taken for ICU training as they are busy with post-operative care.
Independent Clare TD Michael McNamara said the lack of a tracking system for hospitals is also a major problem.
The only way to reduce pressure in intensive care beds is to reduce transmission in the community, said Dr. O’Loughlin.
Meanwhile, Dr. O’Loughlin said the move to Level 5 restrictions of the Living with Covid Plan would only be effective if there is full cooperation from the public. He added that in the first wave of COVID-19, the public was afraid of the virus but now they do not have that “fear factor”.
“Moving from Level 3 to Level 5 will only be useful if we get the compliance,” he said.
TD Michael McNamara said the problem is that a certain group of the society was not following the guidelines. He said the problem was that a particular group of society did not follow even the smallest of restrictions. “I don’t really understand how they are going to adhere to more restrictions,” he added.