Nurses and doctors working in emergency departments (EDs) have called on the government to help curb the spread of Covid-19 by reintroducing public health measures such as mandatory mask wearing indoors.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) and the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IAEM) have jointly called for government assistance. They pointed out that over 10,000 hospital patients have been left waiting on trolleys since the mask mandate was lifted on February 28, and on March 31, over 1,600 patients were in hospital with Covid.

 They emphasised that the current situation poses a very serious risk both to patients and staff “who are now exhausted from being on the frontline”. These staff have already dealt with multiple waves of Covid-19 as well as other drivers of increased attendances, such as rising acute mental health emergencies, all while dealing with their own personal and family anxieties.

The INMO and IAEM are calling on the government, public health officials and the HSE to take action by revisiting public heath measures, such as mask wearing indoors and working from home.

According to INMO general secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha, while wearing masks and working from home will not stop the spread of Covid-19, they will “reduce the intensity of infection and reduce cross infection”.

“Mandating these measures is now a matter of urgency. Hospitals are currently not safe for patients or for staff because of the level of overcrowding and Covid infection levels. We need clear and coherent public health advice from government and senior public health officials. The public need to be made aware of why we need them to once again step up to the plate in order to protect those who are working on our frontlines,” Ms Ní Sheaghdha commented.

According to INMO president and ED nurse, Karen McGowan, when senior clinicians from a medical and nursing perspective sound the alarm to this extent, “someone must stop and pay attention”.

“Our members currently feel like they are getting no support and are being left to deal with the worst of this virus by themselves. They were already burned out after two years of Covid but now we are back to the bad old days of serious hospital overcrowding and if the trends continue as predicted, then we will also have record levels of staff out sick from Covid,” Ms McGowan noted.

IAEM president, Dr Fergal Hickey, said that the current situation “is the worst that many of my colleagues and I have seen in our careers”.

“The situation at present is intolerable for all who work in our hospitals. The problem of overcrowding at this level is not a new phenomenon - medical professionals have been sounding the alarm for a long time now.

“Immediate stronger public health measures are needed. Not doing so and abandoning hospitals to the inevitable will lead to preventable unnecessary higher levels of illness requiring hospital admission, and sadly for some, a fatal outcome,” Dr Hickey insisted.

The INMO and IAEM have written a joint letter to the chief medical officer, Dr Tony Holohan, highlighting this issue and urging him to make a decision to reintroduce “relatively simple public health measures”, such as masks in indoor settings.