Rhiza Labs FluTracker Forum

Thursday, 06 January 2011
Bed shortages at NI hospitals

Flu cases continues to rise in Northern Ireland and it's having a knock on effect on the availability of hospital beds.

A total of 185 people had the H1N1 virus in the last week of December with the highest number of cases in the 15-44 age group.

An increase of 49 cases on the previous week, GP consultation rates also shot up by 45% from 179.5 per 100,000 population.

And the surge in winter sickness is placing a great strain on hospital beds.

Patients have been waiting up to 12 hours at Antrim Area Hospital to be admitted onto a ward, UTV has been told.

Peter Flanagan, the Northern Trust's senior medical director, admitted that numbers were "significantly higher than we would like them to be."

Teresa McKenna's grandmother, aged 88, is one such patient.

She described the situation inside the hospital as "pandemonium."

"She's lying in there in a hospital bed and she can hardly breathe."

A total of 40% of beds in hospitals throughout the region were occupied by patients suffering from flu and flu-like symptoms, Belfast Health and Social Care confirmed on Wednesday.

Elective surgery has now been postponed for one week to ensure hospitals continue to meet the needs of intensive care patients.

Meanwhile, swine flu cases have doubled in the past week in the Republic of Ireland resulting in record numbers waiting for a hospital bed.

The Department of Health and Children reported 5,400 cases.

26 flu patients are currently being treated in intensive care in southern hospitals.

In England, the Government has admitted some areas are short of flu vaccines.

Bringing more stocks in from Europe is being considered after shortages in some areas.

Suppliers have been asked to contact their factories in Europe for a count of how many stocks of UK-licensed vaccine are available.

11 people have died from the flu virus in the last week there.

The deaths are mostly among children and young adults.

Receiving the seasonal flu vaccine is "the best way" to protect against the virus, according to Dr. Lorraine Doherty, PHA's Assistant Director.

She recommends the injection for those in the 'at-risk' group which includes the over-65s and those with a lowered immune system.
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Laid low by swine flu
In this section »
Should Huck Finn get a 21st-century revision?Lead voice in the country woman's associationThey say men ought not to cryDizziness, back pain, sweating, exhaustion, itching, temperature swings and chest pain – five people share their swine flu symptons with Cian Traynor

IT’S BACK. The surge in reported swine flu cases as people return to work and school after Christmas means the usual talk of seasonal ailments is shifting in momentum and scale.
For some, a post-holiday lull in energy levels now means fearing the worst, while bed-ridden others may insist it’s little more than a mild dose of influenza, its threat exaggerated by media scaremongering and the martyrdom of hypochondriacs.

Either way, appetites for festive over-indulgence were ruined for many over the holidays. Crammed social calendars were wiped out as some were forced to kick off 2011 alone in bed, shedding crumpled tissue and cursing their misfortune.

Among those interviewed for this piece, but not included below, one woman quarantined for 10 days coughed up the blunt summation that “it feels like you’re dying”, while a normally resilient labourer admitted to being corralled from bed by a family of unsympathetic nurses.

Wherever you lie on that spectrum, there may be at least some comfort to clutch to in the knowledge that you are not alone.

HEATHER WATTERS (22) Trainee solicitor from Monaghan

I’ve been sick for about a week now and have slowly been getting worse, but because I was vaccinated I haven’t really suffered the full whack of it. Having said that, Im really struggling. Normally I’m a fit person but even walking up stairs is challenging. I’ve got a high temperature but I’m freezing. I’m wearing a thermal snow suit, sitting in a sleeping bag with a blanket over that.

Everything aches. My throat is in pieces; my nose is stuffed. My dad, who is a doctor, told me last night that it could get worse before it gets better and I thought, ‘I really don’t want to hear that’.

I don’t think he even understands it himself. General awareness of what’s going on with this strand of swine flu seems hazy, so I’m just thankful I don’t have any underlying conditions. I genuinely thought I’d be okay after getting the vaccination – swine flu was the last thing I expected.

LEE KUTNER (27) Beauty blogger and personal assistant from Rathfarnham

When you’re sick, you normally curl up and watch telly – but I can tell you, I was lying in darkness. My phones were on silent and the only people I would speak to were my mum and my boyfriend, who I live with.

I’ve no idea how I picked it up. I wasn’t around anyone with swine flu, though I had been feeling lethargic leading up to the last Tuesday before Christmas. Then I had the worst aches and pains; my skin was crawling with fits of itchiness, going hot one minute and cold the next.

I have two young nieces so I wasn’t allowed go to see my family at Christmas. They didn’t want me. I spent a couple of hours at my boyfriend’s family dinner because there was no one who would be at risk, but I would have preferred to be in bed. Those two hours and my trip to the doctor were the only times I left the house for a week.

It was definitely the worst case of flu I’ve ever had. I’ve been slowly recovering since the 28th and I’m back at work, but I’m still not 100 per cent. I have asthma and I normally get the flu jab but this is the first year I haven’t, so I got a lecture from my parents about missing it. It might have saved my Christmas.

DYLAN WALSH (16) Student at Presentation College Bray

I’m 16 today and sick with swine flu – you win some, you lose some. It started off on January 2nd and, as the day progressed, it got worse and worse. Before I knew it I was in bed, in bits; I couldn’t move too fast or everything would spin. My friend had the same flu as me, so when she went to the doctor and was told she had swine flu I copped on.

When I talk, I need to cough and it really hurts my chest. I have a cold, no appetite, no energy but yet I can’t sleep, getting dizzy all the time and I get headaches too.

I’m feeling and looking way better than yesterday, so hopefully by tomorrow I’ll be fine. I will stay in to make sure everything’s okay, so fingers crossed.

I don’t regret not having the vaccination. I think it’s better to fight it off instead of getting this injection and not knowing the side-effects. I believe swine flu is over-dramatic. I still don’t know why it was on the news and everything because really any flu can kill you.

MICHAEL LYNSKEY (19) Student at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology

I experienced headaches, vomiting, chest pain, large amounts of discoloured sputum, severe joint and abdomen pain, fever, cold sweats, photophobia, general malaise, fatigue and dizziness – basically a really bad flu. I’ve still got what you’d compare to a head cold and this is about a week after initially feeling ill. I had no appetite for about three or four days. I didn’t take any antibiotics, just painkillers when needed and as much water as I could stomach.

I was told that H1N1 was around again after my mother suggested it, so I did a quick Google and saw a good few articles about how many cases there were this season. I wasn’t ever concerned for my overall health, just thought it was a bug and it would pass in under a day. It’s ruined a lot of study time for my finals tomorrow but I wouldn’t consider getting the vaccine because it really wasn’t too bad. All three of us in my flat got it at some stage. None of us went to the doctor and we’re not sure where it could have come from, but I was the first to contract it.

There was no guilt or blame, that’s how infections work: I got it off someone and passed it on, simple as that.

JEROME MYBURGH (31) Manages a motorbike parts shop in Dublin

I got on a plane to Morocco two days before Christmas – the idea being that I could spend the holidays somewhere warm for once – but I felt extremely ill within a day. I had been consciously unhealthy for the whole of November and December in the belief that my New Year’s resolutions would make up for it. I was indulging in a poor diet, making no effort to get any vitamins or minerals, and it was too cold to be out exercising.

After I managed to get some sunshine on Christmas day, I went back to the apartment I was staying in and fell asleep. When I woke up two hours later I knew something was wrong.

Three days in, a representative from the travel agency said, ‘you need a doctor’. The GP prescribed me various drugs and I just lay in bed sweating for eight days until it was time to go home. For New Year’s Eve, I crawled into a taxi, saw some fireworks and said, ‘take me home’ just as quick. There was no getting through the pain barrier.

Swine flu attacks the senses in a variety of ways but it gave me the worst back pain I’ve ever experienced. Luckily I had done a big grocery shop on the first day and it was just enough to see me through. It wasn’t particularly fun but, to be honest, it was better to be sick in Morocco with the sun shining through the window than to be stuck at home worried my hands would freeze if they came out from under the duvet..............................continues...........

Yesterday, it was revealed that a total of 50 people had died from the latest outbreak across the UK as a whole - a figure said to include the 13 local deaths.
[N Ireland]

Most recently, a man from west Belfast died on Wednesday, while another two people passed away several weeks ago in Craigavon and Ballykelly representing just three of the swine flu deaths locally.

08/01/2011 - 08:34:02
There is an urgent call this weekend for the Government to reopen closed hospital wards in a bid to prevent a major swine flu crisis.

Fine Gael is warning that seriously ill patients are being put at great risk of cross-infection due to overcrowding and large numbers waiting on trolleys.
The party said these extra beds should be staffed if necessary with agency nurses until the crisis is over.

Fine Gael's Deputy Leader and Health Spokesman Dr James Reilly said people with weak immune systems are particularly vulnerable to catching swine flu.

HSE confirm order of 100,000 flu vaccines

08.01.11

The HSE has confirmed that its order 100,000 extra seasonal flu vaccines. The vaccines will be used to try and keep down swine flu infection rates.

The number of people on trolleys in A&E departments around the country reached its highest figure during the week with close to 600 patients waiting for beds.

There are fears that due to the overcrowding situation the risk of cross infection will increase

Rise in swine flu cases putting strain on GPs
Sunday, January 09, 2011 - 10:13 AM

GPs and emergency units are continuing to feel the strain today as swine flu spreads.

The numbers of people affected by the virus have doubled in the last week, and GPs have said they were 60% busier over this Christmas than last.

GPs said, although the swine flu virus is a particularly severe type of flu, the vast majority of people will feel better after five or six days.

Dr Mel Bates, from the Irish College of General Practictioners, said GPs are seeing a major increase in their workload.

HSE admits swine flu not the cause of A&E overcrowding
John Downes, News Investigations Correspondent

A&E overcrowding: not just flu

The recent increase in swine flu is not the sole or even the leading cause of the record numbers of people left lying on hospital emergency department trolleys around the country last week, the HSE has conceded.

This comes after a HSE statement released last Wednesday that specifically cited an increase in the number of patients with "swine flu, flu-like illnesses and other seasonal illnesses common at this time of year" as being among the contributing factors for that day's "surge in activity" in casualty departments.

Speaking at a press briefing in Government Buildings last Thursday, the HSE's head of health protection, Dr Kevin Kelleher, appeared to contradict flatly the HSE's statement on the significance of the flu. He agreed with the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine (IAEM) that flu had not made a big impact on emergency admissions.
The association had argued that last Wednesday's record number of 569 people on trolleys was a result of recent HSE cutbacks which left more than 1,500 acute hospital beds closed or otherwise unavailable.

A spokeswoman for the HSE has now claimed that the HSE had "at no time" suggested that "swine flu was the sole or leading cause of the emergency department busy period but that it was one of a range of contributing factors".

"Dr Kelleher would like to make it clear that what he meant was that swine flu was not having a big impact on hospital admissions and was not the sole cause, but that it is one of the many contributing factors leading to pressures in hospitals at the moment," she said. "This is in keeping with what the HSE has been saying all week."

However, this is in contrast to the IAEM's interpretation of the HSE's line on the matter.

In its statement last week, it noted that while the "predictable" seasonal advent of H1N1 influenza had increased the outpatient workload of emergency departments, "relatively few" patients with H1N1 required hospital admission.

"Contrary, therefore, to the line taken by the HSE, patients with seasonal influenza have not contributed significantly to the current excess of inpatients being boarded in emergency departments," it said.

"[The] failure to provide adequate hospital bed capacity to deal with the health service's acute workload is the primary problem to be addressed and cannot and should not be blamed on seasonal flu."

January 9, 2011

The number of people dying from swine flu in Northern Ireland seems higher than the rest of the UK because fewer cases are reported there, the Public Health Agency has said.

Dr Carolyn Harper from the PHA made the comment after confirmation on Sunday night that another person in the region died with the H1NI virus.

It brings the total number of deaths since the start of November to 14.

According to figures 45 people have died across the rest of the UK.

Dr Harper told UTV the process of collecting the information in Northern Ireland is different than in other areas of the UK.

"Unless the data collection systems are the same in two countries you can't really compare one country with another," she said.

"Our sense and discussions with colleagues in the UK is that our reporting systems are more complete than in England so therefore we are more likely to capture more deaths here.

"England concede they have a larger degree of under reporting than we have here so you really cannot compare them."

Dr Harper also told UTV there is no evidence swine flu is more serious here than elsewhere, or that the pattern is unusual.

"We see an increase in flu deaths here every year, that increase is within the normal range and we will continue to monitor the situation and take whatever action is required."

Last week, the health watchdog revealed 13 people - including a seven-year-old - had died after contracting swine flu.

Ten of those who died had underlying health problems.

The number of flu infections is highest in the 15-44 age group.

Thirty-two people now remain in intensive care, suffering from the virus.

Figures will be updated again on Thursday as part of the PHA flu bulletin.