Any suspected Ebola patients may be transferred to Mater’s isolation unit

People who have returned to Ireland from West Africa and who feel unwell are being advised to phone their GPs, who will carry out assessments based on their symptoms and travel history.

Those classified as high-risk will then be sent for assessment in their local hospitals. There has been no mention of special transport arrangements for such patients, who are advised to present at their local hospital emergency department. Hospitals may designate some other part of their facilities for suspected Ebola cases, but to date this hasn’t happened.

Slightly different arrangements are in place for aid workers returning from west Africa. They have been advised to phone their local departments of public health on their return, which would make assessments in case of illness.

Patients could in any case present at GP surgeries with Ebola-like symptoms. Doctors are being advised to isolate such patients – in a spare room, for example – and to don protective clothing before assessment.

National Isolation Unit

In hospital, patients will be assessed further, and if still classified as high-risk, they may be transferred by paramedics to the National Isolation Unit in Dublin’s Mater hospital. This has 12 beds for patients with highly contagious conditions, although only two beds offer the highest levels of isolation.

The handling of each patient would be decided case by case, and a decision could be made, for example, to treat a patient in a local hospital rather than in the Mater. While other hospitals have isolation units, these wouldn’t be up to the standards of the National Isolation Unit.

As for Irish citizens who succumb to the disease in West Africa, Ireland does not have the facilities to evacuate them directly, though an EU-wide initiative is expected shortly. Medical guidance may be to treat cases in situ, rather than risk importing the disease into Ireland. Again, decisions would be made on a case-by-case basis.