Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wholeheartedly agree with Professor Mallon that critical planning is essential because we are facing into a winter when we will have Covid-19 patients and non-Covid-19 patients. Then we could have the normal winter surge, the winter vomiting bug and the winter flu. We all know about the issue of the late discharge of patients and the late transfer of care and the number of bed days lost as a result of that, which I have raised consistently for the past four years and which we discussed with the Minister for Health in the Dáil last night. We have to put a clear emphasis on throughflow through the hospital so that when patients arrive, the correct wraparound supports can be put in place for those who need to be sent home as a matter of urgency.

Professor Mallon referred to "the memories of those who have died from Covid-19, some avoidably". In this committee, I have constantly raised the question of what would have happened if patients were tested prior to entering residential care settings throughout March and April. For example, we know that in March 1,300 patients were transferred from acute hospital settings to nursing and residential care homes. We know this virus has borne down hardest on our older people, with 63% of all deaths occurring in residential and care homes. Professor Mallon speaks about avoidable deaths so does he believe that if these patients had been tested prior to entering nursing homes, some deaths could have been avoided?