Hospitals across the country have been told to redeploy staff “to the maximum extent possible” to the treatment of Covid-19 patients.

Hospitals should prioritise Covid-19 care for the next two weeks, even where this results in other work being curtailed, according to Health Service Executive chief executive Paul Reid.

In a letter to health service managers, Mr Reid says all services need to maximise the use of derogations for staff in relation to the rules on self-isolation after infection or close contact status.

Hospital Report

The use of private hospital facilities for public patients, as well as stepdown facilities that obviate the need for hospital admission, should also be maximised, Mr Reid says.

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In the letter, the HSE boss says the Omicron variant of Covid-19 has placed healthcare systems under great pressure, both from cases being hospitalised and from staff shortages relating to infection or contact.

"As of now, we cannot say how much higher cases will escalate and at what time we will reach the peak. Trends from other healthcare systems in Europe demonstrate case numbers greatly in excess of those experienced in January 2021 as well as rising hospitalisations and staff shortages."

As a result, hospitals need to prioritise time-sensitive and urgent work “through all means at your disposal” in both acute and community care settings.

‘Immediate actions’

Mr Reid calls on hospitals to take “immediate actions” to relieve pressure on the system, including “a 14-day period of prioritisation of unscheduled Covid-19 care and urgent time-sensitive work”.

Where there are staffing shortages in treating Covid-19 patients, staff must be redeployed “to the maximum extent to support these areas, even where this results in curtailment of work that is not time-sensitive”.

Hospitals should familiarise themselves with the new shorter period of self-isolation introduced at the end of December and should maximise the SafetyNet contract with private facilities to support the transfer of urgent and scheduled care patients, including maximum use of ICU beds.

Mr Reid said more than 6,000 health staff are off work at present due to infection or being a close contact – this includes 250 in St James's Hospital; 240 each in University Hospital Limerick, University Hospital Galway and Letterkenny University Hospital; 160 in Tallaght University Hospital; and 150 in University Hospital Waterford.

There were no indications that the peak of the current wave has been reached, he told RTÉ radio. While illnesses were less severe, the force of the impact on the hospital system was still considerable.

Temple Street children’s hospital said it was cancelling all non-urgent elective inpatient and day-case procedures from up to January 18th.