Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this question on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly. I thank the Senator for asking this particular question. As today is our first day since the whole country entered into level 3, it is very timely. A comprehensive, reliable and responsive testing and tracing operation is central to our public health strategy for containing and slowing the spread of Covid-19. Capacity is in place to test 15,000 people a day and overall the system is working well. Rigorous contact tracing, automatic testing of close contacts, serial testing in high-risk environments and large-scale testing in outbreak situations means we are proactively finding more cases than we would have previously. In recent weeks, we have increased resources significantly as demand has increased. We are testing more people than ever before, especially in the community, with over 93,000 people swabbed in the last week. This included the opening of additional community testing centres and mobile pop-up testing units, significantly increased contact tracing teams and increased laboratory testing.

A new static testing and swabbing centre in Ardee commenced operations yesterday, 6 October, and together with the facility in Slane is offering test appointments to members of the public from Louth and Meath seven days a week. Combined, they offer in excess of 750 appointments daily. The Ardee centre replaces the previous temporary centre in Dundalk. Ardee is the default location for appointments for those referred from Louth. If there are capacity issues in Ardee, the centre in Slane will come into play. However, capacity in Ardee will ultimately be approximately 50% higher than the previous Dundalk facility so it is not forecast that this will happen.The HSE advises that current demand nationally and also in the Louth and Meath centres is being met and at present there are no plans for a pop-up testing centre in Drogheda. However, referral demand in any area is subject to ongoing review by the HSE and evaluation against available capacity. This includes actions such as extending opening hours and adding testing stations to existing sites.

The increased capacity in Louth is a clear example of the response to demand being actioned. For example on 16 September, 761 appointments were offered across the two Louth and Meath facilities, whereas two weeks previously, those centres offered a combined 450 appointments per day, approximately. In the last seven days in the entire CHO 8 area, 57% of referrals were offered a same-day appointment with a further 40% getting an appointment the next day. This represents a median time of six hours from referral to appointment.

The HSE is now finalising a future model for testing and tracing. This will aim to deliver a patient-centred, accessible, consistent and flexible service. It includes recruitment of a permanent workforce which has already commenced and a range of other service improvements which will be rolled out quickly. Transition to the new model is under way and will continue through the autumn. As part of this transition a comprehensive assessment of community testing and swabbing locations is being undertaken by the HSE. The executive is examining the suitability and sustainability of the locations as long-term testing centres as well as travel times to test centres.

I take on board the points Senator McGreehan made about people travelling, with some facing a 90 km round trip to certain facilities. The HSE is constantly seeking to improve the responsiveness of the testing and tracing system and will keep demand and capacity under review.