Intensive care still seeing 'constant trickle' of Covid patients but 'nothing near' the peak
The President of the Intensive Care Society has said a second wave of Covid-19 in the second half of the year would pose a significant challenge.
Doctor Catherine Motherway said during the winter season, bed occupancy in some Intensive Care Units can be at 100%, without coronavirus.
Fifty-one people are currently in ICUs with the disease - down from a peak of 160 last month.
Dr Motherway said there is currently extra bed capacity in the system, but it is important that it is maintained into flu season.
Dr Motherway said: "We always in the winter with the seasonal flu, and with the increase in respiratory illnesses that we see in the wintertime that we all recognise, see a huge increase in admissions to intensive care, particularly in the winter.
"So there will be significant pressure, and there always is in the wintertime".
However, Dr Motherway says the numbers in intensive care have remained steady and there is still "a constant trickle" of patients coming in.
She told Newstalk Breakfast with Susan Keogh that the country's ICUs have plenty of capacity.
"We've remained in and around the 50 mark in terms of the number of patients in ICU.
"We are seeing people discharged and discharged well - but we still have a constant trickle of patients coming in.
But thankfully nothing near the numbers that we had at the height of our peak, and comfortingly the numbers haven't increased.
"Now we are obviously all of us waiting to see what happens as we are let loose from lockdown to see if the incidence of the disease increases.
"But thus far the numbers... nationally of being notified every day still is less than 100 roughly for the last week.
"So we are holding our own - we have 50 people in the intensive care units at the moment... and we've about 400 beds available to us".
She said any second wave that hits during flu season in autumn or winter would cause problems.
"Our occupancy in our Intensive Care Units nationally in the last two audits have been well over 88% overall.
And in the busier, larger units their occupancy is 95% - and that would go up to 100% in the wintertime without Covid disease.
She said while the HSE did fund some additional beds, several organisations, including the Intensive Care Society, are keen to double their intensive care bed numbers nearer to European norms
"We are in the process of engaging with our political representatives in that matter.
"With or without Covid, we were well below the European norms so we always had a big problem in the winter."
On the easing of restrictions, she says this should be done slow and steady.
"I think a steady exit is very reasonable... we're ahead of other countries.
"So being ahead of other countries helped us at the beginning.
"We knew that locking down could help, we locked down, people wanted us to lockdown and we absolutely reduced that surge.
"So now I think it would be important that we trust those people that are making these decisions to emerge nice and slowly."
She added that while economic and social factors are important, "I would urge that we do it sensibly and after each move wait the required period of time - which is two to three weeks for the incubation period - to see what actually happens."
"There will be peaks and surges, but hopefully there won't be big ones".
