Bantry one of just two hospitals that avoided Covid-19

BANTRY General Hospital was one of just two hospitals in the country that did not have any cases of hospital transmission of Covid-19.

Bantry and St Luke’s in Kilkenny are the only Covid receiving hospitals not to have had any cases.

Dr Brian Carey, the clinical lead for Covid at Bantry General Hospital, confirmed this to The Southern Star and attributed the enormous achievement to the hard work of the staff at the hospital.

‘Everybody was involved in this,’ he said, ‘from the director of nursing to hospital management, nursing staff, medical staff, healthcare assistants, porter staff, allied health professionals and catering staff.

‘They were all hugely involved in maintaining high standards of infection control,’ said Dr Carey, who acknowledged that it was a hugely difficult time for patients and their families because of the strict visitor restrictions.

‘Visitors and the general public also played a role in ensuring that Bantry General Hospital has been so successful in keeping transmission to zero,’ he added.

The HSE confirmed that 1,972 patients contracted the virus in hospitals since December 28th but did not divulge which hospitals, or how many.

In Cork, CUH had 130 cases of hospital transmission; the Mercy University Hospital had 25; Mallow General l 15; the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital 13; CUMH had five, but Bantry General Hospital had none.

‘A lot of work has been done in a short space of time on the internal infrastructure of the hospital,’ said Dr Carey. ‘For example, we transformed our open medical assessment unit to create eight isolation bays which were of major benefit in terms of infection control, and in this regard,’ he said, ‘we’d like to acknowledge the work done by the maintenance officer and building staff.’