CEO of the Saolta Hospitals Group Tony Canavan praised staff at hospitals in the west for the level of care they have provided in the Covid-19 crisis, and the general public for preventing a surge in cases.
In a recent video address Tony Canavan said that when he looks back at the last few months of the Covid-19 crisis, it’s incredible how much things have changed since then.
When the hospitals group, which includes UHG, Merlin Park, and Portiuncula hospitals, was planning for the coronavirus pandemic in February, they expected a “surge” of Covid-19 patients sometime in April.
But the situation now is that the expected wave of cases “never arrived”, in part due to government regulations around the movement of people.
“But more importantly because of the way people complied with those regulations and really bought into them.”
“However some people were affected by Covid-19, and we’ve seen many patients come through our doors over the last couple of months.
“And the manner in which our staff have responded to the needs of patients has been really incredible”.
Canavan praised the “spirit of innovation” people have shown in being willing to adapt how they work to meet this crisis, and for “providing the best care we can” for people coming to hospitals in the west.
There have been 461 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Galway, putting the county at the lower end of the scale nationally, where it accounts for just 1.9% of cases in Ireland.
The national death toll from Covid-19 now stands at 1,615 people, while there have been a total of 24,735 confirmed cases in the state.
However Tony Cananvan cautioned that with Phase 1 of reopening the country now underway there will be more people moving around again.
“And while that’s inherently good, and we need the country to come back into activity again, there is also a risk that comes with it.”
“The concern that we would have is that with greater movement of people, that Covid-19 will start to get a grip again.”
He concluded by asking the roughly 10,000 people employed at Saolta Hospitals to talk to their families and friends about what they can do to “stick with this” a while longer, and prevent a resurgence of the virus.
