Mayor reveals positive Covid test as health service struggles

Taking to social media the borough’s Lord Mayor, Councillor Kevin Savage said: “The situation in ABC is dire, COVID is rife, I’m only out of isolation due to positive test. Please adhere to public health advice.”

Following a response of well wishes from Councillor Peter Lavery, the Lord Mayor confirmed it was “not a bad dose” but in response to message from Councillor Julie Flaherty, the Lord Mayor was pessimistic about the short term outlook for the borough.

“Thanks Julie feeling better, self isolation was no fun. Lucky to have Wendy looking after me. No idea where I got it. Difficult days ahead,” said the Lord Mayor.

In the hours following these comments, the Chief Executives of the six Health and Social Care Trusts across Northern released a joint message outlining the immediate pressure on the health service.

“In early December 2020 we issued what we described at the time as ‘a stark warning’ about huge pressures across the health and social care system in Northern Ireland,” begins the statement.

“At that time we stressed that several of Northern Ireland’s acute hospitals were already operating beyond capacity. Within days, the pressure that the system was under was evident through the images shown across media outlets of multiple ambulances queuing outside Emergency Departments.

“We also highlighted that there was a very real risk that hospitals could be overwhelmed in the event of a further COVID-19 spike in January.

“Modelling projections indicate that in the third week in January we will be trying to contend with double the number of COVID positive patients compared to the current position today, when several hospitals already have record numbers of patients.

“This is not a simple matter of putting up more beds. We need the staff to care for the increased number of patients. Pre-existing staffing pressures and staff absence because of COVID, and other reasons, mean that those staff simply aren’t there.”

The statement continued: “Already, several Trusts are having to stand down all but the most urgent elective surgery, including some red-flag cancer surgery, to redeploy staff to meet the urgent and immediate needs of extremely ill patients, especially both COVID and non-COVID patients needing ICU care.

“These postponed operations will be rescheduled as soon as possible. We have established a regional approach to ensure that any available theatre capacity across Northern Ireland is allocated for those patients most in need of surgery, both during surge and as we come out of this surge.”

“This may mean that patients will need to travel further for their surgery. Cancer services are seeking to maintain chemotherapy, radiotherapy and other non-surgical treatments and alternative treatments will be provided in the absence of surgical options.

“We know that we speak for all health and social care staff in assuring the public that we will do everything that we possibly can to deal with the situation that is unfolding.

“Our staff, although exhausted, will once more go above and beyond to do the best they can for as many people as possible, and we thank them for it. It will definitely not be easy and the care that we are able to provide will at times fall short of the high standards we normally deliver but we will do our very best.

“Desperately ill patients whether COVID or non-COVID will always be the ones being prioritised.”