High number of patients in isolation due to respiratory illness in Portlaoise hospital
In order to reduce the spread of illnesses the hospital management has implemented visiting restrictions.
THE Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise (MRHP) issued a statement this morning advising the public that the hospital continues to experience a high number of patients with respiratory viral illnesses, such as Influenza, RSV and COVID-19.
It said that 17 patients are currently being managed in the hospital with a respiratory illness requiring isolation which is having an impact on available bed capacity.
In the past two weeks, Portlaoise hospital has seen 1,732 attendances at its Emergency Department with 428 admissions, and a total of 644 patients admitted to the hospital in that period.
Hospital management said that all additional capacity on the site has been activated as well as the use of off-site capacity in nursing homes and other care facilities.
In order to reduce the spread of these illnesses in the healthcare setting hospital management has implemented visiting restrictions. These measures will be lifted as soon as possible when clinical circumstances allow. Certain exceptions will be made by contacting ward staff in advance.
For up-to-date guidelines on visiting patients log onto https://www2.hse.ie/services/disruptions/
The HSE Lead for the Midlands Integrated Health Area Carole Broadbank said: “Hospitals are implementing visiting restrictions. With respect to Portlaoise specifically, we are permitting only one visitor at a time per patient during normal visiting times, with some exceptions made on compassionate grounds. We are asking people to only visit patients at the hospital or other health care residential setting if they are symptom free from flu or other respiratory illness, and would ask all visitors to wear masks and to use the hand sanitisation facilities on entry to the hospital/care setting.
“Given the current weather conditions, we know that this can contribute to activity across our services where we see more trips, slips and falls and while injury units are very much the appropriate setting for these types of injury we would ask people to be cautious and not to take unnecessary risks that can led to injury. Check in on neighbours and make sure they are supported in the cold spell.
“While hospitals are busy, staff are caring for many seriously ill patients. We would ask patients with non-emergency conditions to seek assistance from other parts of the health service.”
Ms Broadbank said: “There are a range of care pathways available to patients who do not need emergency care including visiting your pharmacy for advice on common minor illnesses.”
Find out more at www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/2/pharmacy/
It also advises that if you urgently need to see a GP outside of normal hours, contact the local GP Out of Hours service – https://www2.hse.ie/services/find-urgent-emergency-care/
