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.”