Professor Paddy Mallon:

When I refer to avoidable deaths, my experience of this is when an individual attends a hospital without Covid-19 but with another illness and enters the hospital environment sick, fhat person does not expect to contract Covid-19 and die within that setting. We need to maintain safe environments for the public to be treated for their illnesses. From the point of view of a physician and on a societal level, that is critical. Whether it is in acute hospitals or in nursing homes, the same thing applies because the consequence of the sick, the vulnerable and the old acquiring this infection is death.

That is a fairly stark consequence that we simply cannot accept. We can talk about bed days and social distancing, but if we enter September, October and November knowing what is coming and we still end up with people dying within our healthcare facilities from nosocomial infection, then, in my view, we have failed.