CITY TRIBUNE
Top ICU consultant slams people who decide not to get Covid vaccine
Deciding not to get vaccinated has been slammed by the Regional Head of Surgery, Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine as “self-destructive” and “selfish” and a move that was causing immense harm to the health services as well as the community.
Dr Kevin Clarkson, consultant in Intensive Care Medicine in University Hospital Galway (UHG) and Perioperative Clinical Director for the Saolta Hospital Group, has described the pandemic for staff as “constant warfare”.
“Day to day it’s extremely difficult to manage theatres, ICU [Intensive Care Units], A&E [Accident and Emergency]. Yesterday we were briefly overwhelmed with critically ill patients on wards, on the ICU itself and operating theatres. We simply do not have the resources to cope. We do manage but it’s constantly like warfare . . . it’s the constant siege and threat that is wearing on people.”
The latest statistics from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) – which includes a breakdown for the first time of vaccination status for admissions to hospital – shows that more than half (54%) of the 136 admitted to ICUs nationally in September and October said they were not vaccinated.
While 7% of the population is unvaccinated, they account for more than half of all admissions to the ICU. Some 62% of the 0-24 age group with the infection in hospital were not vaccinated.
Almost all (97%) of those who contracted Covid-19 in September and October who were admitted to an ICU and were vaccinated had an underlying health condition.
That contrasts with the figure for the unvaccinated – one in three of them in ICU had no underlying health condition.
Around 28% of those who contracted the virus in the last two months and were admitted to an ICU were not born in Ireland. Of these 90% reported being unvaccinated.
Dr Clarkson said these statistics rang true in the Saolta Group.
“We have two presentations with Covid – the unvaccinated and those who are profoundly immuno-suppressed, often with haematological cancers so even though vaccinated they do not have general immunity.
“This cohort have a length of stay in the ICU that is extraordinarily long and they have a particularly high mortality.”
Patients from overseas who were unvaccinated predominately came from central and eastern Europe which had low vaccination rates, the consultant stated.
“They [people who choose not to get vaccinated] have made a very self-destructive and selfish decision that is causing immense harm to the health services and the broader society,” he insisted.
Hospitals have lost as many staff as they have managed to recruit throughout the pandemic. The only way to improve the dire circumstances for patients and staff was a new, expanded hospital with more staff with increased capacity in community care.
“The Prospectus Report in 2008 estimated we needed 40 critical care beds in Galway. We are down one to 13 beds. We were funded for six extra ICU beds in UHG but we can’t recruit to staff them. In addition, the infrastructure is severely limited.
“It can take long periods of time to get patients into ICU but it can take longer to get them out because we can’t get them out to the wards and that’s down to a lack of capacity. There’s the inability to discharge to the community because of the lack of rehabilitation facilities. There’s a need to overhaul flow productivity. The community can turn off the tap, the hospital can’t.
“We need a major new hospital with more bed stock and associated staff, accelerated ability to discharge to the community and we need to build operating theatres – it needs a major new hospital. We’ve not properly invested in Galway for the last 30/40 years, we‘ve had replacements, refurbishments, but very little new bed capacity.”
A total of 1,391 people tested positive in Galway in the seven days until Wednesday and 2,852 in the past fortnight – giving a 14-day incidence rate of 1,105 per 100,000 population – still below the national average of 1,287. The latest figures from the HSE show there were 16 confirmed Covid cases being treated in UHG on Wednesday, as well as one suspected case.
There were two Covid patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Galway, and there were no ICU beds available. There were 16 general beds available.
The latest CSO report shows there were no confirmed Covid-19 deaths recorded in Galway in the week ending November 12. Overall, there have been 155 Covid deaths in Galway since the start of the pandemic. People aged 65 and over accounted for half all those hospitalised since March 2020.
Despite the high numbers going for PCR tests, there continued to be same day and next day availability at testing centres at Galway Airport and NUI Galway, unlike large swathes of the country.
Some 7,000 people had gone for testing in seven days at the airport.
Testing at NUIG has been increased from five to seven days providing in excess of 400 additional appointments.
Meanwhile a survey conducted by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation INTO) found that 2.1% (156) of Galway pupils were reported as testing positive for Covid.
They poll, based on responses from 877 schools, found 3.6% of staff nationally tested positive.
INTO General Secretary John Boyle said the snapshot survey shines a light on a primary education system that is creaking at the seams.
“Soaring transmission levels are an indictment of the premature removal of testing and contact tracing from our primary schools, and of the frustrating failure to move quickly to deploy antigen testing.”
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
The new Salmon Weir pedestrian and cycle bridge will be officially opened to the public next Friday, May 26.
Work on the €10 million bridge got underway in April 2022, before the main structure was hoisted into place in early December.
A lunchtime tape-cutting ceremony will take place on Friday, as the first pedestrians and cyclists traverse the as-yet-unnamed bridge.
The Chief Executive of Galway City Council, Brendan McGrath, previously said the bridge, once opened, would remove existing conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and traffic “as well as facilitating the Cross-City Link public transport corridor over the existing 200-year-old bridge”.
The naming of the new bridge has been under discussion by the Council’s Civic Commemorations Committee since late last year.
One name that has been in the mix for some time is that of the first woman in Europe to graduate with an engineering degree – Alice Perry.
Ms Perry, who was from Wellpark, graduated from Queen’s College Galway (now University of Galway) in 1906. The university’s engineering building is named in her honour.
The bridge was built by Jons Civil Engineering firm in County Meath and was assembled off-site before being transported to Galway. Funding for the project was provided in full by the National Transport Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.
(Photo: Sheila Gallagher captured the city’s new pedestrian footbridge being raised on the south side of the Salmon Weir Bridge in December. It will officially open next Friday, May 26).
From the Galway City Tribune – Minister of State for Local Government and Planning, Kieran O’Donnell was labelled a “disgrace” for overturning councillors’ decisions to rezone land in the new City Development Plan.
Minister O’Donnell (pictured) confirmed in a letter to Council Chief Executive Brendan McGrath last week that he was reversing 25 material alternations made by councillors to the CDP 2023-29. He made the decision on the advice of Office of Planning Regulator (OPR).
Minister O’Donnell directed that 14 land parcels that were subject to land-use zoning changes by councillors as part of the Material Alterations to the Draft CDP should be reversed.
He directed that a further 11 land parcels in the city should become “unzoned”.
The Minister found that the CDP had not been made in a manner consistent with recommendations of the OPR, which required specific changes to the plan to ensure consistency with the national planning laws and guidelines.
At last week’s Council meeting Cllr Eddie Hoare (FG) asked for clarity on the process by which councillors could rezone the lands that had been changed by the Minister’s direction.
Cllr Declan McDonnell said, “What he [Minister O’Donnell] has done is an absolute disgrace”.
And he asked: “Do we have to have another development plan meeting to deal with it?”
Both Cllrs Hoare and McDonnell wondered what would become of the lands that were rezoned or unzoned by the ministerial direction.
Mr McGrath said the Council had put forward an argument in favour of retaining the material alterations in the plan, but ultimately the Minister sided with OPR.
He said if councillors want to make alterations to the new plan, they could go through the process of making a material alteration but this was lengthy.
The Save Roscam Peninsula campaign welcomed the Minister’s decision.
In a statement to the Galway City Tribune, it said the direction would mean the Roscam village area on the Roscam Peninsula will be unzoned and a number of land parcels would revert back to agriculture/high amenity.
A spokesperson for the campaign said: “the material alterations made by city councillors following lobbying by developers continued the long-standing practice of councillors facilitating a developer-led plan rather than an evidence- and policy-based plan that meets the needs of the city.
“The Minister’s direction is an important step in restoring confidence in the planning system. It is clear from the City Council’s own evidence on future housing projections that there was no requirement to zone these lands for residential purposes in order to meet the needs of the targeted population increase up to 2029,” the spokesperson added.
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