Tag Archives: HSE

This afternoon.

Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin 2.

HSE CEO Paul Reid at the HSE’s weekly Covid update.

Where’s your upgraded mask?

Meanwhile…

Mr Reid has said that there is a much lower level of hospitalisations in proportion to the daily case numbers as was seen in previous waves and variants.

He said that there is plenty of evidence that Omicron “isn’t as impactful or severe at an individual level as previous variants have been“.

However…

Paul Reid has said that it is “really like tackling this wave with one hand tied behind our back” because up to 15,000 of the workforce are out due to Covid.

But he added that the volume of the cases and pace of the rise in cases “continues to put a constraint on our healthcare services“.

Um.

Anyone?

Rise in hospital cases of people with Covid-19 ‘seems to have slowed’ (RTE)

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This afternoon.

A small sample of the enormous online response prompted by Sinéad O’Connor’s condemnation of Tusla and the HSE’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

Ms O’Connor’s 17-year-old son Shane, who was on suicide watch, was found dead last weekend after he went missing from hospital.

Ms O’Connor said on Twitter:

“A month ago Shane was brought to CAMHS after vanishing leaving suicide notes including detailed funeral plans. They discharged him. Said he had no plans. When objections were raised by the adult with him she was told “planning a funeral is no different to planning a wedding”.

“If I may venture … I’ve been married more times than Zsa Zsa Ga-fucking-bor and I’m here to tell CAMHS that planning my child’s funeral is nothing remotely similar to planning his wedding. Which will now never happen. Because you’re unfit for purpose.”

Previously: Tusla And The Silencing

Fear of the Unknown

Dr Anne O’ Connor, Chief Operations Officer, HSE

This morning.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, she said the HSE is not doing a “blanket shutting up” of services but has advised hospital sites to pull back where they need to.

Ms O’Connor said there will be some “inability” to do some scheduled work and some people will be left waiting as a result.

“There are certain things we have to do. We can’t just shut up, we have to respond to emergencies and people who are very sick people, and people with time dependent care needs, people with cancer surgeries, cardiac procedures etc.,” she said.

She said Covid-19 is impacting all of their services, not just hospitals and staff have to be redeployed to into areas where they are needed such as emergency departments and residential care.

HSE expects challenging week amid Covid case increase (RTE)

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Paul Reid, CEO, HSE, at Dr Steevens’ Hospital this afternoon

Yikes.

This afternoon.

HSE weekly covid briefing at Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin.

Mr Reid said there are now at least 8,500 staff out of work due to Covid.

Some healthcare settings have gone from 60 people out to over 300 people out over the course of this week.

He said that there could be at least 12.5% impact on staffing levels.

He said that this figure includes over 3,000 nurses and midwives, over 1,500 staff involved in patient and client care and almost 1,500 health and social care professionals.

“This is a real frontline impact on us overall,” he added.

He said that “we still haven’t seen the tap turned off in terms of staff being impacted”.

‘Persistent stress’ across the health system – Reid (RTE)

Leah Farrell/Photocall Ireland

Meanwhile…

Ah now.

Senator Michael McDowell

Who doesn’t love a crafty gasper?

The state for one.

Via Michael McDowell in the Irish Times:

…Cigarettes may even be restricted to sales in pharmacies, we are told. This is absurd. If a highly profitable State monopoly on tobacco sales is to be conferred on anyone, it should not be pharmacies. And it is even possible, according to the HSE, that filters will be banned on cigarettes – making them more harmful as a deterrent is a new idea.

Another idea under consideration is printing cancer warnings on each cigarette.

I don’t smoke and I totally supported Micheál Martin’s ban on smoking in indoor premises to which the public have access. But while I really pity nicotine addicts, I do not think that tobacco should be the subject of American-style 1920s Prohibition-era laws.

This is a case of the nanny state going a step too far. If people want to smoke, the State has no business preventing them from doing so. If people want to drink, you can’t bring in prohibition in the interests of cancer prevention, public health or the HSE’s budget.

It is noteworthy that we are considering legalising the smoking of cannabis while the HSE is planning the banning of smoking altogether – or nearly altogether.

Does the HSE want us all to live until we are 100? Who will pay the HSE for the consequences of that?

Public health policy does not warrant such coercion in a free society…

Ratlicker!

*sparks up afternoon fattie*

Michael McDowell: Anti-alcohol law contains some utterly ridiculous legal provisions (irish Times)

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HSE CEO Paul Reid

This morning.

Via RTE News:

Chief Executive of the Health Service Executive Paul Reid has said there has been an acceleration of Covid-19 cases and positivity rates over the last 48 to 72 hours and it would appear that as Ireland exits a Delta wave, it is entering an Omicron wave.

In a worst case scenario, Mr Reid said, the country could be facing a potential 20,000 cases a day.

…..Optimistic modelling estimates case numbers at around 8,000 a day, he said.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr Reid said early evidence seems to indicate that Omicron is a less dangerous variant but it is highly transmissible – over five-and-a-half times more transmissible than Delta.

Potential 20,000 daily Covid-19 cases in worst case scenario, says Reid (RTE)

Meanwhile….

Ah here.

RollingNews

HSE CEO Paul Reid in Dr Steevens’ Hospital this afternoon for the weekly HSE covid briefing

This afternoon.

Over one-third of ICU patients are Covid-positive – HSE (RTÉ)

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This morning.

Via The Irish Times:

Mandatory Covid-19 vaccination of healthcare workers is being considered by public health officials as a response to high infection levels.

The issue was raised at a meeting of the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) earlier this month, which agreed to examine “relevant ethical, legal and practical issues before any action is considered”.

The Department of Health is to prepare an evidence paper on the topic to be discussed at a future meeting, according to minutes of Nphet’s meeting on November 11th.

Up to now, the practice has been to remove an unvaccinated healthcare worker from frontline duties…

Mandatory Covid-19 vaccination of healthcare workers considered by Nphet (Irish Times)

RollingNews

Meanwhile…

Oh.

HSE CEO Paul Reid speaking to media in Dr Steevens Hospital today on the weekly HSE operational update on the response to Covid-19

This afternoon.

Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin.

Weekly HSE covid briefing.

Meanwhile….

The age profiles of those in ICU are currently:

71% are 50 years and older.

28% are 19 years to 49 years old.

18-year-olds and younger account for 2% of those in hospitals.

In hospitals, 49% of those in hospitals are fully vaccinated.

46% of those in hospital are not fully vaccinated and 5% did not have status known.

And similarly in ICU, 47% are fully vaccinated, 52% not vaccinated at all and 1% partially vaccinated.

HSE gives update as Covid-19 cases ‘begin to plateau’ (RTÉ)

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