It WILL be some time before there is any return to normality as hospital services deal with the knock-on effect of the latest wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Assistant Medical Director at the South West Acute Hospital.

As the Fermanagh and Omagh District Council area currently has the worst Covid rates in the UK, Professor Ronan O’Hare said that “flow” through the hospital for patients has been affected.

Profile of patients has changed

“We have seen the profile of patients change who are attending with Covid symptoms,” explained Professor O’Hare.

“And the age profile – they are much younger and the majority of them are unvaccinated.

“The average length of a stay of a patient in hospital is about 2.2 days but patients who come in with Covid aren’t. It’s much longer and there are more long-term effects of the disease, so they are in the hospital system and stay for longer.

“That all has a knock-on effect, so the flow through the hospital is affected, and ‘the back door’ is closed and that therefore leads up to pressures at the ‘front door’.”

Alongside a younger profile of Covid patients, Professor O’Hare said pregnant women with the virus are becoming more common, but he did admit that there was no clear direction around the vaccination and pregnant people until recently.

While these people occupy hospital beds in this wave, other illnesses are being overlooked.

Professor O’Hare said that health care service in Northern Ireland was under pressure before the pandemic and will continue to be once it has passed, but in the present day, people are not coming forward if they have symptoms or signs of other illnesses.

“The big question is what’s happened to all the cancers that are out there, and when are they going to get operated on?

“There are a certain amount of ‘missing’ cancers. Cancer doesn’t stop happening, and patients haven’t presented to their GP or Health Service with cancers, and that delay and that backlog will have to be dealt with. At the same time, we are competing with these additional pressures.

“Young patients with Covid are occupying beds and the longer you delay surgery, the longer you delay an intervention with cancer. There is an increased mortality rate, so that is extremely concerning.”

And Professor O’Hare went on to say: “I would urge people if they have symptoms or signs, if they believe they have ill health, they need to present themselves early and to get a diagnosis and get through the hospital system.

“But the delay for having a cancer surgery has increased, and for people who need hip operations or knee operations, the delays are just immeasurable and the amount of pain and suffering they have to go through.

“The system is now compounded by the fact we are now dealing with this younger profile of unvaccinated Covid patients who are quite prevalent in this wave.”

This most recent wave is levelling out, according to Professor O’Hare, but the staff and resources are still being impacted either through contracting Covid, having to self-isolate or burnout.

Staff ‘taumatised’

“Some of the staff have been very traumatised by Covid and it has an impact on them. Any time you lose a patient, particularly a young one, you lose a part of your soul and people have difficulty coping with that.

“And it’s well-publicised the number of nurses leaving, they change career or they won’t work in certain wards. Having said that, they are all extremely professional and offer a very high standard of care, but it isn’t easy, and managing those staff isn’t easy.

“It’s not just nursing staff, it’s ancillary staff, pharmacy staff, medical staff. We are short of medical staff presently and are constantly rearranging rotas trying to keep a safe service,”

For Professor O’Hare, vaccinations are still the way out of the pandemic and if those that are unvaccinated get the jab, it is another step in alleviating hospital pressures.

“Get your vaccine. We have done extremely well getting this high percentage of the population vaccinated – we just need that further push.

“And I do believe we are over the peak in intensive care but the system remains under pressure,” he concluded.