Nursing homes are experiencing the surge in COVID-19 cases that was expected to hit Irish hospitals, according to an industry body.
More than a third of the virus clusters around the country have been recorded in our nursing homes.
Meanwhile, 45% of people who have died from COVID-19 came from a nursing home setting.
A cluster is defined as three or more cases in one location within a 72-hour period and, as of midnight on Saturday, there were 149 in nursing homes around the country.
Nursing Homes Ireland CEO Tadhg Day is meeting with the Health Minister Simon Harris this evening to discuss the situation.
On The Hard Shoulder this evening, he said different homes around the country have received different levels of support from the Government, describing it as “not consistent, not uniform and not national.”
LISTEN BACK: Ahead of his meeting with @SimonHarrisTD this evening, Tadhg Daly, CEO of @NursingHomesIre spoke to Ivan https://t.co/Oiq36ZRugP
— IvanYatesNT (@IvanYatesNT) April 14, 2020
He said the two main issues facing homes around the country are staffing and equipment shortages.
“We have a fairly significant number of staff now who are either out awaiting testing or indeed awaiting test results,” he said.
“We were encouraged by comments of the minister yesterday that the backlog will be cleared within a week.
“That is critical because we can’t have a situation, in an area that is obviously highly dependent on staff in terms of care provision, that there are large numbers out sick.”
Personal Protective Equipment
He said the sector needs the support of HSE personnel where appropriate while it is struggling with staffing levels and needs adequate personal protective equipment to be delivered to every home in the country.
COVID-19
He said hospitals are continuing to discharge patients into the country’s nursing homes – and said it is essential that discharged patients are virus-free.
“The onus here is on the discharging hospital to ensure that the person has two clear swabs before they are transferred,” he said.
“I would say that the surge people were talking about over the last couple of weeks is effectively in the nursing homes sector at this point in time.”
He said the sector will continue to deal with outbreaks as they occur and will continue to ensure the safety of residents that have not seen any outbreak.
