Health workers and people at risk urged to get flu jab
By William O'Connor
AS OF eight o’clock on Monday afternoon (January 7), there were 10 patients waiting to be admitted to a hospital bed in Tallaght University Hospital (TUH). This compares to 18 on the same day last year, a decrease of 44 per cent.
While flu-like illness has not had a significant impact on numbers attending the Emergency Department (ED) to date, signs that flu levels are rising are now evident and it is expected that this will impact on the number of ED attendances and admissions over the coming weeks.
The number of patients attending the Adult Emergency Department continues to increase year on year, with over 50,000 attendances to TUH in 2018.
Tallaght University Hospital is calling on people to get the flu vaccine
TUH and Community Services would like to remind the public that it is not too late to get the flu vaccine.
The 2017/2018 flu season was very drawn out and the number of outbreaks, confirmed hospitalised cases, ICU cases, and associated deaths exceeded all previous records in Ireland, including the 2009 pandemic.
All age groups were affected with a particularly severe impact on older cohorts. There were nearly 5,000 confirmed influenza cases hospitalised last year when compared to nearly 1,500 in the 2016/2017 season.
The flu vaccine has been available from hospitals, GPs and pharmacists since early October.
TUH and Community Services are calling on all healthcare workers and people in at-risk groups to get the flu vaccine as there still is time to protect ourselves, our patients and our families.
