Call for regional quarantine centres for healthcare staff after infected Cork worker told to isolate in Dublin

The Government has been urged to establish a designated quarantine centres for healthcare staff who test positive for Covid-19, after it emerged a Cork healthcare worker was told she had to quarantine in Dublin.

The call came from a councillor in Cork who said he had been contacted by a healthcare worker working in a nursing home near Cork city who had recently tested positive for Covid 19.

"This woman could not self -isolate at home so she was sent to the Kingsley Hotel but she has now been told she can't stay at the Kingsley and has to the travel to the Citywest Hotel in Dublin," said Cllr Ted Tynan of the Workers Party in Cork.

“Apparently, it’s the designated centre nationally set up by the HSE for health care staff who test positive for Covid and need to self -isolate, so this woman now has to make her way from Cork to Dublin.”

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Cllr Tynan said that the woman was right in the frontline in the fight against Covid-19 – so much so that she and her colleagues had to remove those who died from the illness and place them in body bags and sealed coffins.

“I was stunned when I heard it to be honest that somebody in the frontline like this, who has tested positive for Covid 19, is being asked to travel all the way to Dublin because there is no suitable facility here in Cork,” he said.

“This woman should be self-isolating 24 hours a day, not travelling the length and breadth of the country – and how is she expected to get to Dublin – by bus or train or get someone to drive her there and put others at risk? It’s crazy.”

Cllr Tynan said the HSE should move immediately to establish regional centres around the country in places like Cork and Kerry where healthcare staff, who test positive for Covid-19 and can’t self-isolate at home, can quarantine locally.

He said that the healthcare worker is one of a number of staff at the nursing home who tested positive for Covid-19 in recent days, after an outbreak of the disease affected 46 of the 48 residents at the facility.

According to HSE Cork Kerry Community Healthcare, the HSE provides temporary accommodation for healthcare workers affected by Covid-19 and the accommodation costs of the scheme are met by the HSE.

Temporary staff accommodation for a variety of healthcare workers is provided at a number of locations across Cork and Kerry including at the Kingsley Hotel in Cork city, said HSE Cork Kerry Community Healthcare.

But these temporary accommodation centres are not available to healthcare workers who test positive for Covid-19 and need to self-isolate but cannot do so at home, and so they are referred to the Citywest Hotel in Dublin.

Citywest is “a safe place for people who cannot self-isolate at home. To be admitted to the self-isolation facility, a person needs a referral from a hospital, GP, contact tracing team or other appropriate healthcare professional,” it said.

According to the HSE, the Citywest Hotel is the HSE’s only self-isolation facility and is available for frontline healthcare staff and members of the public who can manage themselves and need to self-isolate, but cannot do so at home.

The HSE is also using the Citywest Hotel to facilitate healthcare workers, who come in from abroad and are contracted to work here in a healthcare facility and need to quarantine for 14 days prior to joining the workforce, it said.

According to the HSE, the Citywest Hotel currently has 228 people in self-isolation, having been referred by a medical practitioner while, as of January 31st, some 47 healthcare workers were self-quarantining at the hotel.