Health services in Cavan and Monaghan have seen a rapid increase in cases of patients with flu and respiratory illness.<\/p>\n
Reported rates of flu per 100,000 were highest last week in Sligo, this was followed by counties such as Co Cavan.<\/p>\n
Professor James Hayes is a Consultant Respiratory Physician who has practiced in the Cavan\/Monaghan area over the last 30 years.<\/p>\n
Professor Hayes says the impact of flu circulating in the community has a direct impact on the capacity of health services, both in hospitals and in primary and community care settings.<\/p>\n
While there hasn’t been the same surge in flu following the festive period that was was expected, the local health professional warned that there is still time for a further increase in flu.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Northern Sound, Professor Hayes says that flu always remains a matter of concern going into the months of both January and February.<\/p>\n
He told Northern Sound: “We are asking our local communities across Cavan and Monaghan to please consider all healthcare options if you or your family become unwell. Depending on your illness, there are a number of treatment options open to you including out-of-hours GP and pharmacies. Being prepared and knowing where to go will mean that you will get treated more quickly and will ease pressures on the healthcare system.<\/p>\n
“As always, people who do require emergency care are encouraged to attend the Emergency Department where they will be prioritised. Patients who attend the ED for routine and non-urgent treatment may experience long waiting times as we treat our sickest patients first. I also want to remind the public that the Injury Unit in Monaghan is open every day of the year and can treat a wide range of injuries including breaks, sprains, burns and minor injuries.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health services in Cavan and Monaghan have seen a rapid increase in cases of patients with flu and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[103,397,396,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-235151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}