Ireland is “no better prepared” for a future pandemic than it was six years ago, a panel reviewing the country’s response to Covid-19 has been told.
On Tuesday, health experts addressed Covid-19 Evaluation Panel, which was established to examine how Ireland planned for and managed the pandemic, reports Breaking News.
The panel aims to draw lessons from the performance of the health and social care system and the Government’s handling of risks, and will issue recommendations for future crises, without assigning blame.
While many experts commended aspects of Ireland’s response, they acknowledged that not all lessons from past shortcomings have been fully learned, reports Breaking News.
Chairwoman Anne Scott said people did their best under difficult conditions, but stressed that the country had not been adequately prepared.
“We can certainly learn from the lack of preparation, I think there is widespread agreement we were not prepared. We should not find ourselves in that situation in the future.”, reports Breaking News.
Anthony Staines of Dublin City University said outdated IT infrastructure created major challenges, noting that one reporting system even had a weekly limit on case entries.
“This is not the kind of thing you want to discover in the middle of a pandemic, and it’s clearly insane. The IT systems in the Health Service Executive (HSE) are still disorganised, out of date and unbelievably slow to deliver.”, reports Breaking News.
He also criticised the National Public Health Emergency Team, saying it was not suited to managing a pandemic and lacked sufficient epidemiological expertise.
He said the group grew too large, reaching up to 50 members, making it ineffective for decision-making, reports Breaking News.
“What happens when there’s another pandemic? Are we ready? And the answer is absolutely not, we are not ready. There is good evidence that pandemics are likely to become more frequent as a direct result of climate change. So if we are to cope with another pandemic, we need to do a great deal of work on the public health workforce, on information systems, on laboratory systems”, reports Breaking News.
Steve Thomas of Trinity College Dublin warned that hospital waiting lists and staff morale must be addressed ahead of any future crisis.
He said waiting lists have grown since the pandemic and could become the baseline for the next emergency if not reduced, reports Breaking News.
Mr Thomas added that healthcare workers were not sufficiently protected during the pandemic or the subsequent cost-of-living crisis, a problem seen across many high-income countries.
“I think many, many countries and the WHO (World Health Organisation) have put their hands up over that.”, reports Breaking News.
The panel also heard about “blind spots” in Ireland’s pandemic response, particularly in relation to care homes.
Mary Codd from University College Dublin said infection control training in long-term residential care settings was inadequate.
“Infection prevention control training in long-term residential care facilities was seriously missing or substandard.”, reports Breaking News.
She said mortality rates among people over 70 who stayed at home were similar to the general population, but were 21 times higher for those in residential care.
Codd said improvements are needed in areas such as staffing, training, infection control and facility conditions, reports Breaking News.
Former World Health Organization deputy director general Mike Ryan told the panel that communities were not trusted enough to manage their own risks during the pandemic.
“In general, people manage their own risk. They decide how many times a day they go to the shop, they decide if they get on public transport, they decide if they go to work, all of those are decisions that would increase or decrease your risk of exposure, and we didn’t trust communities enough at times to make those decisions”, reports Breaking News.
He said he understood why strict measures were taken given the pressure on health systems, but added that such approaches lacked democratic input.
“At no point did the World Health Organisation ever advise lockdowns”, reports Breaking News.
Mr Ryan stressed the importance of learning from past mistakes rather than repeating them. It is very important that we don’t play the next pandemic like the last one”, reports Breaking News.
He said shifting scientific advice created communication challenges and eroded public trust.
“How do we communicate with the public, and how do we communicate uncertainty?”, reports Breaking News.
He warned that future preparedness must not rely too heavily on technology alone.
“Unless we start to invest in community and participatory public health and have communities ready for the next pandemic, we’re going to fail, not because of the technological and the innovation solutions, but we have not prepared, supported and involved our communities in preparing for the next pandemic.”, reports Breaking News.
Mr Ryan added that Ireland was often viewed internationally as having a cooperative and trusting society, where people worked hard and tried their best during the crisis.
He said it was important to recognise the efforts of healthcare workers during that time, reports Breaking News.
The panel also heard that the early global response to Covid-19 was marked by confusion and blame.
David Heymann said: “With these two words, the world was facing a new epidemic, which turned into a pandemic,” reports Breaking News.
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