Tag Archives: HSE

ATTENDANCES at the Emergency Department (ED) at the region’s main hospital continue to hit record levels last seen before the pandemic. In a statement, the University of Limerick Hospitals Group (ULHG) confirmed that well in excess of 200 patients have been presenting every 24 hours at the ED in Dooradoyle. It has again asked members of the public to “consider all care options” before attending. In the 24-hour period to 8am on Wednesday (August 18), 229 patients attended the ED. A total of 241 attended the ED in the previous 24-hour period. “This continues a pattern of high attendances to ED around the country which has been sustained over a number of weeks and current activity levels remain far in excess of the 195 average attendances at our ED recorded in 2019, the last full year pre-pandemic,” a statement said. The hospital has also seen an increase in the number of Covid-positive patients being treated. As of Wednesday, there were …

A PROHIBITION on swimming at a popular west Clare beach has been issued on foot of advice from the HSE. Clare County Council, on the advice of the HSE, has placed a prohibition on swimming in White Strand Miltown Malbay. The ban is due to increased bacterial levels in the bathing water at the beach as a result of recent rainfall. The local authority is appealing to the public not to swim at the beach until further notice.

FOLLOWING consultation with the Health Service Executive (HSE), Irish Water, working in partnership with Clare County Council, has issued a Do Not Consume Notice for consumers on the Shannon/Sixmilebridge Public Water Supply due to elevated levels of manganese. The notice applies to approximately 7,500 customers and is effective immediately. It does not apply to customers in Shannon, Newmarket-on-Fergus and Bunratty. It is especially important that mains drinking water is not given to bottle fed infants. Please note this is not a Boil Water Notice. Boiling the water will not reduce manganese levels and is therefore not a suitable measure to make the water safe to consume. This notice does not apply to other water schemes in County Clare. Tankered water will be in place at the following locations to provide an alternative water supply to customers. Customers are reminded to use their own containers when taking water from the tanker and to boil water before consumption as a precautionary measure. …

A PLANNING application for a €25 million community hospital in Ennis to replace long stay and short stay beds at St Joseph’s is set to be lodged by the end of this year, it has been confirmed. If given the green light, the 100-bed community nursing unit will be situated on grounds adjacent to St Flannan’s College. A design team has been put in place and have began an outline design phase of the project. The unit will include 88 single and four twin rooms, and four palliative care facilities. The project has already been included for funding in the HSE Capital Programme 2021. Details of the proposal were confirmed in response to a Dáil question put by Clare Fine Gael TD Joe Carey to Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly. In early 2016, a Capital Programme for Older Persons Residential Centres was developed and agreed with the Department of Health in response to the introduction of HIQA’s, National Residential Care …

ONLY nine extra Intensive Care beds have been provided nationally by the HSE in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, a local Dáil deputy has claimed. Speaking during Leader’s questions in the Dáil on Wednesday, Deputy Michael McNamara recalled Ireland imported the idea of lockdowns from China. However, the difference is health authorities in China managed to build hospitals in 14 days in response to Covid-19. The East Clare Deputy recalled the HSE’s Capacity Census last year showed ICU capacity increased from 255 to 280 from April to December 2020. “At the end of last year, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly announced the government was going to increase ICU capacity to 446, of which 321 was supposed to be delivered by the end of this year. “However, to this date this year, the HSE has only provided nine extra ICU beds nationally.” He asked An Taoiseach, Micheál Martin what the government was doing to increase hospital ICU capacity. Deputy Martin recalled …

PHARMACIES in Clare have been helping to give a shot in the arm to the national vaccine roll out effort. A number of pharmacies throughout the county have recently started administering the Covid-19 vaccines as part of the national programme. A total of 17 pharmacies spanning across the entire county from Kilkee to Corbally have begun offering the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine, also known as Janssen. Among them is Rochford’s Pharmacies with branches in Ennis and Corofin. Pharmacist Brendan Rochford said there has already been a lot of interest from the public in getting the jab. He says that the vaccination service was quick to take off at the pharmacy. “We already had a list of people who booked their appointment before we even received the vaccines last Thursday evening, so we started our first administrations as soon as possible on Friday morning.” He added, “We are delighted to be able to play our small part in the rollout …

STAFF in St Joseph’s Hospital have hit back at recent “inaccurate” claims that residents were left unwashed for months. The Clare Champion has learned that staff members in St Joseph’s are furious over recent public statements made by Deputy Violet Anne-Wynne and Deputy Cathal Crowe in the Dáil in view of their assertion patients were left unwashed for months. The newspaper can reveal that staff are also upset with the HSE for giving a public apology concerning care in St Joseph’s as they believe this was not justified. A union official has confirmed staff couldn’t shower patients during a Covid-19 outbreak but instead used a basin with soap and water, which was used to clean a patient from head to waist before this was emptied and a new basin was obtained to clean the patient’s bottom half. This was completed in line with agreed HSE procedures, which was not referenced in the recent HIQA report. The newspaper has been assured …

CONCERN about the lack of a definitive starting date for the proposed Primary Health Centre in Kilrush has been expressed by a local Dáil deputy. Sinn Féin TD Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne is calling for more concrete commitment and action to be taken to ensure community health care services continue across rural Clare. The Sinn Féin deputy’s comments came following a vague and non-committal response from the Department of Health concerning the development of the promised Primary Health Centre in Kilrush two years after it was officially announced. “The fact that this new Primary Health Centre was announced in March of 2019, but the HSE are still effectively refusing to commit to any concrete action or development two years down the line is unacceptable,” said Deputy Wynne. “We all know that various developmental projects have been stalled as a result of the pandemic but the HSE’s response to any questions seeking clarification about projected timeline are unnecessarily vague and seem to …