Volume of queries sees Covid-19 testing referral system crash shotrly after go-live
A new online GP referral system for Covid-19 testing crashed shortly after going live today.
It was so overwhelmed by the demand for tests from GPs all over the country that it went down just 30 minutes after it went online at 9am. It stopped working properly and GPs were instead asked to use emails to send in their requests or tests.
The main reason for the sudden rise in demand was the decision by the Department of Health to ease testing restrictions.
Previously a person had to have a series of key symptoms such as fever, chills, shortness of breath, and a cough or have traveled from a part of the world where restrictions were already in place due to Covid-19. Now, if a person is sick with flu-like symptoms they are to be tested.
And due to both demand and depending on which of the 20 or so pop-up tented testing pods around the country a test is conducted in, people are likely to have to wait for up to three days to get tested. And they will have to wait another 24 hours for their results.
Dublin-based GP, Maitiú Ó Tuathail, says the number of those testing positive will increase significantly over the coming days and weeks. And he fears that while everyone expects there to be deaths, the death toll will end up higher because of people who went out drinking in pubs over the weekend.
“Despite all the warnings, despite all the calls for common sense, there were thousands of people who still went out drinking in packed pubs over the weekend,” he said.
“It is because of them that the death toll will be higher. Because many of them are young, they are not likely to be too badly affected by the virus. Instead, it is their parents and their grandparents who will end up suffering. These people will be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of others. What they did was incredibly selfish at a time when we are dealing with the biggest single health threat in most of our lifetimes. On one of the days they were out drinking, 100 people in Italy died.”
His Ranelagh GP practice, which is staffed by eight GPs and three nurses, has seen a 300% increase in the number of calls: “We had so many, our phone system crashed,” he said.
“Many of the people we were treating last week are now going to get tested, given that the testing restrictions have been lifted. Unfortunately, we are getting a lot of calls from people who might just have a runny nose or sneeze a few times.”
University of Limerick president, Dr Des Fitzgerald, called on people to “take personal responsibility to try to slow down this virus and save lives”.
President of the Intensive Care Society of Ireland, Dr Catherin Motherway, said the health service “will try to save the most lives” while facing the challenge of Covid-19. She told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland: “There is no doubt that pandemics do exceed the limits of all health care services.”
Dr Motherway said that a surge in the number of cases of the virus is expected in the next week to 10 days: “All we can do is prepare and ask people to obey the rules asked of them.”
