Nenagh councillor says HSE had plenty of warning of ICU crisis

Nenagh Hospital. Photo © Tipp FM

Concerns have been raised at the lack of Intensive Care Beds in the Mid-West region due to increasing hospitalisations due to Covid-19.

25,000 cases were reported last week, which is the third highest since the pandemic began.

There were 513 patients with the virus in hospital last night with 88 in intensive care.

Nenagh based Councillor Seamie Morris says just one ICU bed is available to cover North Tipperary, Limerick and Clare.

“There’s no doubt there’s a very dangerous spike in North Tipperary and probably in the Mid-West and its reflecting in the amount of ICU beds available for people in UHL.

“Lets be honest the ICU situation or the bed situation in the Mid-West – we’ve been warning about it for years that it wasn’t sufficient. We certainly didn’t know that there was a virus or a pandemic coming down the road but really its been proven now that our ICU capacity is in a desperate situation.”

Councillor Morris says the decision to close Intensive Care Units in Nenagh and Ennis and St John’s is coming home to roost.

“Of course the people at the top don’t listen to people – 10,000 people marched on the streets of Nenagh to try and stop that and now we have this situation.

And this is at a time when people are actually avoiding going to hospital until the last minute.”