CMO: 'For every four Covid deaths in NI, there will be one more'

Northern Ireland's Chief Medical Officer has warned about the outcomes for non-Covid patients if pressure persists on our health service.

In an exclusive interview with Downtown Cool FM, Doctor Michael McBride told Head of News Nigel Gould how the pandemic is impacting the rest of the NHS:

"We know from...our analysis that for every four Covid deaths, if we are in the position where we have to stop all other aspects of healthcare, there will be one other person who will come to harm or die as a consequence of us not being able to provide the treatment or care that they need.

"So this isn't just about Covid, this is about our health service."

Last week First Minister Arlene Foster spoke about 'green shoots of hope,' while health chiefs were more cautiously optimistic.

Trusts ramped up capacity in intensive care units units as part of surge planning and an ICU nurse told Downtown Radio Cool FM the first floor of the Nightingale hospital was almost full.

While hospital admissions are expected to level off this week, Dr McBride had a stark warning in the immediate short-term:

"This is without any shadow of a doubt, the worst and most challenging situation...the health service in Northern Ireland and indeed society in Northern Ireland has ever faced.

"And it is likely to get worse before it gets better."

He added: "What we haven't yet seen is the number of admissions to our hospitals begin to fall.

"That has levelled and we hope that if we continue to do what we're doing now, that over the next seven to 10 days we will see a decrease in admissions and probably a week or ten days later then a decrease in people going into our intensive care beds."

In an urgent written statement to the assembly on Friday, Health Minister Robin Swann said hospital capacity was at 103% percent earlier in the week but had dropped to 97%.

Mr Swann also said the recent rise in hospital patients with Covid-19 is "expected to plateau in the next week at levels significantly above wave one."

He said some welcome progress has been made in the past two weeks with tougher restrictions in place, including the closing of the hospitality sector.

However, the Minister said it is essential that this progress is not just maintained but accelerated:

"Over the last week, the number of cases has continued to plateau and has begun to decline slightly, however I would caution the rate of decline is slow and the trajectory remains uncertain."

Dr McBride also revealed a rapid Covid testing system is being trialed in Northern Ireland and is likely to be available in 2021:

"Those tests are now being evaluated at a UK level but also here...and I anticipate that early in the new year we will be bringing those out in a variety of settings.

"We will be able to scale them much more rapidly, we're talking about potentially being able to scale to millions of tests within a few short months and a very, very short turnaround time."

You can see the full interview here