There were 244 people in Dublin hospitals with COVID-19 yesterday as the country's care units are almost at critical capacity and under "extreme pressure" as the situation worsens, the INMO has warned.
There were only 18 adult critical care beds available at 8pm in Dublin yesterday - one in the Mater, three in Beaumont, Connolly, St Vincent's and Tallaght and five in St James's. In Temple Street four paediatric critical care beds were available, with 12 in Crumlin.
Of the critical care beds taken, St James's and the Mater both had six COVID-19 positive patients, Connolly and Beaumont had four and Tallaght and St Vincent's had three.
Here's how many cases of coronavirus were in Dublin's main public hospitals yesterday:
- Beaumont - 68
- Tallaght - 39
- St Vincent's - 38
- Mater - 38
- St James's - 33
- Connolly - 25
- CHI Crumlin - 3
INMO General Secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha, said: “What we are hearing from members across the country this weekend is deeply disturbing. The progress we made on keeping case numbers down seems to be completely undone.
“COVID is creating more patients while also depleting staffing. It’s a vicious combination. Staff are far more experienced than they were at the start of this pandemic, but the sheer numbers are difficult to cope with.
“Frontline staff are running three services in parallel – a COVID health service, a non-COVID health service, and a mass vaccination scheme. This can only work if pressure on our hospitals is eased.
“On behalf of Ireland’s nurses and midwives, the INMO is asking that the public stay home and strictly follow public health advice. The vaccine is being rolled out – we simply need to keep cases down.
“We need all hands on deck here. The government and HSE must focus on supporting the exhausted frontline healthcare workers. This means taking on additional capacity in the private sector and ensuring the childcare needs of frontline workers are taken into account.
