Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will certainly speak to the Minister for Health. We have already spoken to the HSE about the situation in Letterkenny and will continue to do so.

1 o’clock

There is a problem at the moment in terms of what we discussed earlier with Deputy Joan Collins on the impact of the current wave of Covid on hospitals, particularly model two and model three hospitals, and so forth. First, we have the bed capacity issue in terms of isolation of patients who have Covid and then there is the egress because so many nursing homes and elderly care centres are now centres of outbreak and they cannot take in patients. I think more than 600 patients have been officially discharged from hospitals but cannot leave the hospitals because of the fact they cannot go into centres where there has been an outbreak. There are real challenges facing emergency departments. I acknowledge the point the Deputy made about Letterkenny.

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