Top surgeon proposes isolation hospital in Merlin Park

From this week’s Galway City Tribune – A top Galway-based surgeon has called for a national isolation hospital to be set up in Merlin Park within 72 hours in a bid to stop the spread of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.

Sherif Sultan, President of the International Society of Vascular Surgery, said a dedicated isolation facility is necessary to “prevent chaos” in the healthcare system, and suggested that Merlin Park would be suitable for this purpose.

“The hospital was originally designed to manage TB in the last century. It has unused intensive care beds, a high dependency unit, helipad, CT scan, MRI, a full lab facility, and enough space for 400 beds,” he said.

“Merlin Park must be taken over by the Irish Army to have a speedy, lean management team to set it up in 72 hours, away from the HSE procuracy,” said Mr Sultan.

He explained that patients in isolation are not allowed visitors and the location of the hospital away from people’s homes in other parts of the country is therefore irrelevant.

The consultant vascular surgeon also called for the army to be deployed in a “martial-law-like scenario” to force the State into lockdown to tackle the threat of the coronavirus.

He said that the true scale of the pandemic in Ireland is still unknown because “relatively few” tests have been conducted, and said leadership is required in order to prevent chaos.

“The Irish Government must move to a martial-law-like scenario,” said Mr Sultan. “[It] must shut down public spaces and the ability to [freely] travel.”
This is a preview only. To read the rest of this article and more coverage on Covid-19, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. Buy a digital edition of this week’s paper here.