Mayo University Hospital had to cancel all routine inpatient surgeries this week and impose strict visiting restrictions for the hospital due to rising Covid-19 cases in the community this week, along with dealing with a Covid-19 outbreak at the hospital.
Last Friday, December 31, the hospital limited visits to those on the basis of compassionate grounds for the week, with visits by appointment only, with hospital staff confirming the times and nominated support person/visitor in advance.
Separate arrangements had also been put inlace for access to the maternity department for nominated support partners, with visits being facilitated once a day for one hour periods between 5pm and 8pm; partners were allowed to continue to attend for all deliveries, inductions, scans and emergency presentations.
The hospital also postponed a number of elective procedures in order to redeploy staff to support essential emergency care in the hospital. All routine inpatient surgeries were postponed, but time-sensitive urgent cases proceeded when it was safe to do so. Out patient services proceeded, with ambulatory gynaecology, some endoscopy and other non-theatre day cases proceeding but remained under review. Patients had to confirm that their case is proceeding on the day before it was scheduled, using the contact details provided on their appointment notification.
The increase in Covid-19 cases in the community combined with the outbreak of Covid-19 in the hospital saw the hospital last Saturday asking people not to attend the Emergency Department unless they required urgent care. On Monday they had to also request that people only attended the Acute Covid Assessment Unit (ACAU ) in the hospital if they were acutely unwell.
There were 34 confirmed cases of Covid-19 being treated in the hospital on Wednesday night as of 8pm, as per the HSE Daily Operations Update (the most recent data at the time of going to print ). On Wednesday, January 5, the hospital saw four new confirmed cases admitted, with two other suspected cases and one case being treated in the hospital's ICU.
The hospital had seen the numbers of confirmed cases increase from 33 on January 1 to 39 on January 3, before it dropped to 37 on January 4 and to 34 on Wednesday, January 5. Over the period from Saturday, January 1 to Wednesday, January 5, there was one person being treated in the hospital's ICU for Covid-19 on each of those days.
In regard to new cases being treated in the hospital - on January 1 there was 2, on January 2 there was 3, on January 3 there was 5, on January 4 there was five and and on January 5 there were four.
The latest local electoral area (LEA ) data for confirmed cases in the community at the time of going to print only covered the period up to December 22, 2021. This showed that over the 14 day period up to that date, in the Castlebar LEA, there were 325 new cases, Westport LEA, 157, Swinford LEA, 13, Claremorris LEA, 172, Ballina LEA, 152 and in the Belmullet LEA there were 70 cases.
