‘Stay away from hospital’ — HSE

The HSE is urging members of the public to stay away from the Midlands Regional Hospital Mullingar “unless absolutely necessary” as it struggles to cope with number of people presenting with flu and respiratory illness.

For the last month, local health services have been stretched due to the winter flu season arriving four weeks earlier than expected. To compound problems, a large number of local people have contracted respiratory infections.

In a statement issued to the Westmeath Examiner, a HSE spokesperson urged the public “to only attend the hospital if absolutely necessary and to not bring children if at all possible”.

“Hospital management apologises for the inconvenience to patients and their families and thanks the public for their co-operation at this time. Management would ask that, where possible, patients with flu-like illness or cold symptoms telephone their GPs or pharmacists in the first instance to seek the best advice, rather than presenting at the hospital. In addition, people due to attend the hospital for an outpatient clinic appointment during the current week who may have symptoms of flu are advised to check with the hospital before attending, as an appointment may need to be rescheduled in order to prevent the further spread of flu to both patients and staff.

“People in high-risk groups (people over the age of 65 and those with chronic illness) are again encouraged, if they have not already done so, to avail of the flu vaccine from their GP or pharmacist.”

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner yesterday, Mullingar based GP Kieran Gaine said that “huge demands” have been placed on local health services in the last month. “We have had an awful lot of different winter problems including full blown influenza and respiratory infections.

“Locally we have been fairly good at getting vaccinated. It’s been shown that getting the vaccine either prevents getting the flu or reduces the severity and duration of it. Notwithstanding that, there have been a lot of people getting a respiratory infection that isn’t quite influenza but is placing huge demands on general practitioners, Midoc and the emergency department.”

Dr Gaine said that while there has been a “noticeable spike” in numbers looking for appointments at his practice in Market Point, he says that people are heeding advice about staying at home if they have the flu.

“People are getting the message. If they have the flu and not just a head cold and chest infection, they will ring up and look for certs or just ask for advice. They are not coming in and bringing bugs into environments where other people are going to be.”

The best way to get over a flu, Dr Gaine advises is to “stay in bed, take pain relief, maintain good hydration and rest”.

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Meanwhile, while hospital services are stretched at present new figures from the The number of patients treated on trolleys at Midlands Regional Hospital Mullingar fell by almost 40 percent last year.

That’s according to newly released figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) which revealed that 2,619 patients had to wait for a bed to become free at Tullamore hospital in 2019, a 39 percent decrease on the previous year when the figure was 4,344.

Nationally, the INMO reported that 2019 was the worst ever year for overcrowding at Irish hospitals with 118,367 patients treated on trolleys, a nine percent increase on 2018.

Over 1,300 of the patients were children younger than 16. The worst months for overcrowding in 2019 were November (12,055), October (11,452), and September (10,641).

The worst hit hospitals were University Hospital Limerick (13,941), Cork University Hospital (11,066), University Hospital Galway (7,993), South Tipperary Hospital (6,942) and University Hospital Waterford (6,313).

The other hospitals in the midlands, the MRH Tullamore and MRH Portlaoise, also recorded significant decreases in the number of patients being treated on trolleys.

In Tullamore the number fell from 5831 in 2018 to 3344 (-42%), while in Portlaoise the figure fell from 2815 to 1845 (-34%).

The INMO points to under-staffing and a lack of capacity as key drivers of overcrowding. There are 411 fewer inpatient beds in Ireland’s hospitals today than a decade ago, despite a larger, older population.