‘Robust arrangements to cope with coronavirus’

THE chief executive of the Western Trust has insisted the health body is “well-prepared” to cope if there is any surge in the numbers of coronavirus cases across the North in the coming weeks and months.

Speaking after a meeting of the Trust’s board in Omagh on Thursday, Dr Anne Kilgallen said they were paying “close attention” to the latest developments on the global outbreak of the disease, which has been declared a ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’ by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Dr Kilgallen said the Trust was working closely together with partners right across the health system at both a regional and national level.

She said, “We are well-prepared. I described to the board today that we have daily meetings on our sites across the Trust, and we also have a regional teleconference call on a daily basis, in order that we stay aware of any changes in the advice or information.

“We are constantly checking that we have the arrangements in place. It’s very regionally-aligned, we are paying close attention to it and I would reassure the public that we have plans and contingencies in place.”

The chief executive said that the Trust’s main focus has been on ensuring that arrangements were in place to assess and test people when that is needed.

She said, “We are following national guidelines in relation to identifying and supporting people. It is also about having provision within our own hospitals if someone does require in-patient care.

“We’ve all those arrangements in place and we’ve also tested them on both of our main hospital sites. We feel as confident as we can be that we have robust arrangements in place.”

While Dr Kilgallen said that the number of coronavirus cases in Ireland so far was small, she added, “We recognise that more people may present and we need to be ready for that.”

She urged members of the public to follow the advice being given regionally by the Public Health Agency (PHA), particularly “careful attention” to hand-washing.

“My advice to people would be to be calm, to pay attention to reputable, government sources of information and, even though it seems a very trivial thing, hand-washing is a really important defence and protection against this. It may seem like very simple advice, but it’s very reliable advice,” the chief executive said.