A Consultant in Emergency Medicine at Sligo University Hospital has warned that the Healthcare service is facing the perfect storm as a result of the combination of a hugely transmissible variant of Covid-19 and severe overcrowding in a number of Hospitals.
Fergal Hickey claims the government made a massive mistake when they stood down the National Public Health Emergency Team.
He was speaking earlier this morning during a media conference hosted by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine association this morning.
During the event he outlined how the challenges facing Health Care workers are the greatest he has seen in his career.
The Consultant in Emergency Medicine urged the government to reintroduce mask wearing and to encourage people to work from home where possible.
The Sligo based Consultant says there were many outbreaks occurring in Hospitals and it was becoming increasing difficult to separate patients with covid and those that have not contracted the virus due to many patients not showing any symptoms of the virus when they first present in Hospitals with other concerns.
Finally in a response to a question from ocean FM news in relation to the long term impact on hospitals such as Sligo university Hospital and the patients attending the facility Fergal Hickey outlined how many hospitals will struggle to treat a greater number of patients post pandemic due to the current resources they have at their disposal and subsequently patients will be negatively impacted
