Irish hospitals now operating at ‘surge capacity’, says HSE chief

THE Chief Executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE) has said that Ireland’s hospital system has formally gone into ‘surge capacity’.

HSE figures show that there are now 1,850 patients in hospitals being treated for Covid-19. Of those, there are 96 at Letterkenny University Hospital.

“We have formally gone into surge capacity,” Paul Reid said.

“We are seeing families and young people being treated. This virus affects everybody.

“In terms of beds, we now have 313 available beds, up from 285 before surge capacity.

“We have now stood up our national critical care surge group.

“Individual hospitals are scaling up for surge capacity, where they cannot operate beyond that, we would mobilise ambulance transfer between hospitals, but that has not happened yet.”