Hospital boss allays claims of ‘ageism’ over ICU Covid beds

The number of positive cases of Covid-19 in Galway topped the 200-mark on Easter Sunday, as new figures show ten patients spent the Bank Holiday weekend in the Intensive Care Units of local hospitals.

As of Sunday midnight, there were 220 positive cases of Covid-19 in the city and county, compared with 128 cases the previous Sunday.

But as the data confirmed an increase of 72% in positive Covid-19 cases in Galway in a week, the Saolta Hospital Group moved to clarify it is not ‘ageist’ when it comes to deciding what patients get critical care treatment in ICU.

Dr Pat Nash, Chief Clinical Director of Saolta Hospitals Group told the Connacht Tribune that there was ‘no change’ in how UHG, Merlin Park and Portiuncula practice ICU. And he insisted all Covid-19 patients, regardless of age, are offered ICU if it is deemed an appropriate treatment for them.

“Treatment is always based on need and whether the treatment is appropriate for the individual patient, following a discussion with the patient,” he said.

“There’s always decision-making about escalation of care into ICU.  Is it going to improve their outcome, are they going to survive? It’s quite an invasive treatment strategy. Our policy hasn’t changed and this is part of the normal multi-disciplinary team assessment of all patients in hospitals,” Dr Nash added.

A national newspaper reported yesterday that Saolta has a patient evaluation points system as a guideline for doctors to determine who should be sent to intensive care.

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