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AN INDEPENDENT PROBE has been ordered into Covid-19 outbreaks at a Northern Ireland hospital after the death of a fourth patient.
Three wards at Craigavon Area Hospital in Co Armagh have been hit by coronavirus clusters.
The most severe outbreak has been in the Haematology Ward.
The Southern Health Trust said a fourth patient treated in the ward who had tested positive died this morning.
Last week, two patients treated on the ward died at the hospital after testing positive for the virus.
A third patient died after being discharged.
That patient had also tested positive although the virus was not the primary cause of death.
Stormont Health Minister Robin Swann has now ordered the most serious level of investigation available to him.
He announced the move as he answered an urgent oral question on the outbreaks in the Stormont Assembly.
Earlier today, the minister chaired discussions with senior officials from the Southern Trust, the Public Health Agency and the Department of Health.
“I said on Friday that a thorough investigation is required and that patients and bereaved families are entitled to answers,” he said.
“I can now confirm that a level three serious adverse incident review will be initiated.
“This will be independently chaired and I expect its findings to be made public.
I also want to again express my deepest sympathies to the loved ones of those who have passed away.
“I am deeply sorry that families have been plunged into grief in such disturbing circumstances.”
The minister said the Southern Trust’s immediate priorities were to care for affected patients and staff and prevent further spread of the virus.
“The Public Health Agency gave me an assurance at the meeting that all the actions that have been requested to reduce spread have been implemented by the Trust,” he said.
“I was also assured by the Southern Trust that support is available for families, patients and staff.
“There are undoubtedly questions that will have to be answered by the Trust in relation to these outbreaks.
“There is also a lesson for us all to keep heeding – Covid-19 remains a lethal and highly infectious virus.”
Confirming the latest death, Southern Trust chief executive Shane Devlin said: “On behalf of the Trust I extend my deepest sympathy to the patient’s family and friends.”
As of Friday, 14 patients who had been treated on the Haematology Ward had tested positive.
Seventeen members of staff had also tested positive.
As well as the Haematology Ward, the Emergency Department and Ward 3 South of the hospital have also been hit with outbreaks.
On Friday, a total of 56 staff connected with the three outbreaks were off work and self-isolating.
New cases
Earlier today, the Department of Health announced another Covid-19 fatality in Northern Ireland.
The death of the person who had tested positive was reported to health officials between Saturday morning and Sunday morning.
Before the latest death in Craigavon hospital was announced, the death toll recorded by Stormont’s Department of Health stood at 565.
A further 141 new cases of coronavirus in Northern Ireland were also announced today.
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Unfortunately, this University is really dropping standards, the quality of new lecturing staff is very low, they seem to be hiring people who have qualified with PhDs but no experience. Incredible campus though!
@Joe Conlon: That’s not true the standard of lecturing is excellent. There are new PHD lecturers in most universities but that doesn’t mean they are poor in any way. It’s a fantastic place and it’s a shame to see former staff claiming money they were not supposed to get. That’s if the allegations prove true. The University under its new leadership has done the right thing in looking for a review. It’s a big place with many departments and many qualifications offered and all are of the highest calibre.
@Joe Conlon: That sounds like a very broad assessment and I doubt it’s true. Mind narrowing it down to the department you have experience with because it certainly isn’t true for mine.
@Catherine Sims: we will have to disagree on that, I suppose it does depend on discipline but there has been a significant drop in standards, education is a commodity now and is being reflected as such in this unit.
@Joe Conlon: It has the 2nd highest employability in the country after Trinity and is in the top 150 globally, I’m not sure what you’re using to measure this standard drop.
http://www.ul.ie/international/ul-ranks-highly-qs-global-employability-ranking
@Rochelle: perhaps Joe didn’t do well and wants to blame the lecturers ???
@Catherine Sims: Perhaps he didn’t even get in!
@Rochelle: My own experience, I studied there as an undergrad and got my master’s there back in the day and it was truly excellent, I decided to study further on a part time basis recently and simply found the people over the programme did not know their material at all. By the way, if you have the time read Ellen Hazelkorns books on rankings and that will make it clear on why these rankings that you just referenced mean nothing.
@Catherine Sims: I have done very well thank you, I even lectured there myself for 5 years but am now working in the private sector. However, with your negative response I suspect that it’s you that has ended up in a dead-end job?
@Chef, you don’t even have a qualify to get into University, once you are 23 you can apply for any course in any college that you wish, and if you have enough money, universities service the elites even better. Another individual with a chip on your shoulder I suspect?
@Joe Conlon: In which department? My objection is why you’re tarnishing an entire University for what seems to be an observation you’ve made in your own department.
@Catherine Sims: Catherine if the lecturing staff are confined primarily people with PHD’s and not enough people with experience would he have a point?
@Catherine Sims: if the above point is valid (which it is), why would you try and suggest a possible slander and ridicule to his character based of a journal comment and having no knowledge? Would that make you a petulant child? Asking for a friend
All universities are certainly guilty of a particular problem: making certain that people don’t get employed long enough to give permanency.
Now, there’s a few fair arguments on that: Lecturers fresh from PhD or within a few years from their research tend to be more up to date and permanence can facilitate complacency.
But there are certainly counterpoints on that too: PhDs are very specific and with a narrow focus, if you’re in a place and proving yourself for a decade then it’s hard to argue someone is complacent.
As with all jobs, minimum expectations should be met. During my time at UL I had only 2 lecturers I had a problem with – one a complete waster (anyone who studied to be a tech teacher in UL will know EXACTLY who this is) and the other someone I just fundementally disagreed with but can recognise that they were certainly fit for the job.
The same goes for the TA’s who were IMO nothing less than excellent.
As for excessive expenses – I would be surprised if questions shouldn’t be asked of a lot of universities on that.
What gets me about things like that are that in a static way, it should be pretty obvious where there should be questions asked. Things aren’t static of course – blips in funding and workload occur. But over a period of years it should be pretty reasonable to look at ratios and be readily able to explain any deviation from what you would expect to be a pretty reasonable cycle.
And the whistle blowers who exposed the financial malpractice within UL have been treated disgracefully ever since. Smear campaigns have been carried out by certain individuals.
@Colm O’Sullivan: it wouldnt be Ireland if it were any different
Great University and great Campus.
Unfortunately he mentioned ‘stakeholders’ – that’s when I glaze over.
@eastsmer #IRExit: You do know that isn’t the same thing as “stockholders”?
Everyone working and attanding and studying at UL are stakeholders.
It is interesting to note that UL point blank refused to alert or inform former aeronautical engineering students, who had work experience placements in the Irish Army Air Corps, that they were unnecessarily & dangerously exposed to highly toxic chemicals during the placement.
Over approximately 20 years scores of UL students were exposed with some now suffering illnesses common to exposed Air Corps & civillian airbase personnel.
Toxic chemicals they were exposed to without PPE include Benzene, Cresylic Acid, Dichloromethane, Hydrofluoric Acid, Isocyanates, Methyl Ethyl Ketone, nHexane, Toluene, Trichloroethylene and Xylene as well as many different Hexavalent Chromium compounds.
See http://www.accas.info for more.
@Chemical Brothers: is it long term or short term exposure that causes these health issues? For example, alcohol and fags in the long term can causes cancer. In the short term the body can heal and eliminate the toxins.
@Bairéid Rísteard: Very long term. For example Dichloromethane, with an allowable TWA of 50ppm, was measured in ERF in August 1995 at 175ppm. After this was discovered staff were left to rot in this small building resulting in the deaths of at least 5 personnel. 2 x Non Hodgkins 1 x Brain Tumour, 1 x Crohns, 1 x Brain Tumour, 1 x Heart Failure. There was a further non fatal heart attack and a non fatal Hodgkins. All except 2x Non Hodgkins were suffered by young men in their 20s / early 30s. No one was issued with any PPE.
http://www.accas.info/?page_id=142
Note the State Claims Agency (aka NTMA/NAMA) claims personnel were not exposed to dangerous chemicals whatsoever.
@Bairéid Rísteard: Sorry meant to say staff we left to rot in this location for a further 12 years.
Air Quality reports from 1995 & 1997 were ordered destroyed by Air Corps Health & Safety management in 2006 when a stsff member went yellow with a liver injury. Similar liver injuries (Toxic Hepatitis) occurred in Jan/Feb of this year through lack of chemical & PPE training.
@Chemical Brothers: that’s shocking, and very sad for those men and their families. I was recently in a paint hangar (not as a painter), and the ppe standards were abysmal. Seems like history is repeating itself.
@Bairéid Rísteard: Unfortunately this gets a lot worse.
Adult body count has recently reached 20 for serving & former personnel whilst 5 children of personnel are also dead through a combination of cancer & congenital defects.
In recent weeks we have also learned of at least 7 cases of autism/autism spectrum disorder amongst personnel’s children as well as 1 x Cri-Du-Chat syndrome, 2 x trisomy 21 and 1 x XYY syndrome.
Exposed chemicals were carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic and are doing exactly as they said on the tin
Irish Army Air Corps only started to attempt to comply with 1989 chemical legislation in 2016 but it appears to be only a box ticking exercise with little extra resources on the ground and little effort to enforce a safety culture change.
White Collar Crime is rampant all over the place…..bring in CAB….
A great time to release all this bad news to the media, will get lost in a few hours in Garda Scandals ,brexit and Endexit.
Be interesting to see what former president Dr Ed Walsh will say. He surely will be on Newstalk and will blame the secondary school teachers!!
Second big fire in two days in Limerick . This time in the Raheen industrial estate. Do we have an arsonist on the loose I wonder ?
@Catherine Sims: No we don`t , two seperate unrelated incidents
@Tony O Dwyer: And a completely seperate story.
have your say