Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 21 July 2020

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response

Covid-19: Infection Rate among Healthcare Workers (Resumed)

Dr. Kevin Kelleher:

I am not going to answer that directly. When we do those we rely on history and that is reflected in the history. In a sense the Chairman is correct but that is only because we have relied on the history of absenteeism. We do not deliberately say that we know people will come into work as part of that, it is just that we use the history and clearly from what we all now know, we know we have to change. That is a big cultural change. Everybody will then start saying that they have been told that absenteeism rates of 3% to 5% are inappropriate. However, I have said previously that I do not mind an absenteeism rate of 6% or 7% if we are stopping people with infections coming into hospitals to infect other workers in the hospital system or patients. It is a difficult thing to get over.

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