A woman walks past a mural in Dublin city centre during a Covid-19 lockdown in 2021. Photo: PA
Whether it’s another coronavirus, bird flu, a superbug or a climate emergency on the horizon, Ireland needs to ensure it is better prepared than it was for the Covid pandemic, a new expert group report has warned.
While Ireland did well in some areas, with excess mortality among the smallest in Europe, surges in hospitalisation of a lower and shorter duration than many other European countries and high vaccination rates, too much of the response was ad hoc.
The warning is made in the Emerging Health Threats Function Expert Steering Group (ESG) report published by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.
The next public health emergency might also be one that is chemical, biological or nuclear.
There is a need for a lead agency to be mandated and resourced to steer the response, it said.
It called for a new Health Security Emergency Response Service to be set up to ensure public health staff have the capacity and capability to rapidly deliver mass testing, contact tracing and vaccination in response to public health incidents and emergencies.
It pointed out the most vulnerable in society were most affected by the pandemic and response.
“Addressing inequalities in health outcomes and the wider determinants of health is central to public health. This work must be resourced adequately,” the report said.
Limited modelling capacity to project information around possible cases of infection and deaths was available within the system and the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group was established in response to the pandemic.
Although these ad hoc entities functioned extremely well in supporting the work of the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) “the reactive efforts required highlighted the deficiencies of these skills and capacity for this work within the public health system”, the report said.
Mr Donnelly said: “We are harnessing the lessons learnt from the pandemic in order to ensure that we are equipped to respond effectively to future public health emergencies.”
The report makes a range of recommendations around surveillance and research as well as cross-government linkages combined with updated legislation.
It noted the recent HSE recruitment embargo prevented the Health Protection Surveillance Centre from setting up a Biostatistics and Modelling Unit and said it is essential remaining posts be filled.
