Slight drop recorded in number of positive covid cases at St Luke’s Hospital for Carlow Kilkenny
Overcrowding has been an issue at the local hospital in recent weeks with covid a contributory factor
The number of people in St Luke’s hospital with Covid has fallen slightly.
Latest HSE figures show 52 cases of the virus at the local hospital – down from 60 on Monday.
However there are still 3 patients being treated in ICU.
Nationally, the numbers in hospital with the virus have dropped by a third in past fortnight.
Infectious Diseases expert, Professor Sam McConkey, is expecting that trend to continue:
“I’m expecting it to continue to rapidly decline over the next two to four weeks”
Meanwhile a cardiologist at St Luke’s hospital for Carlow-Kilkenny admits the new beds coming on stream there won’t provide an immediate solution to the overcrowding issues.
Daily reports from the INMO have shown the numbers of patients left waiting on trolleys has been significant in recent weeks.
The new 75 bed wing is expected to open in the coming months.
Michael Conway says that will provide the opportunity for the situation to improve but he said staffing and other matters won’t be resolved straight away:
“It’s not as simple as suddenly we are just going to double in size and everything is just going to be doubled. No, it doesn’t work that way”
You can listen back to the full interview with Michael Conway on The Way it is with Brian Redmond on Monday here:
