"It's been the weekend from hell. First wave hell." Professor Paul Ridgway is speaking via Zoom from his office at Tallaght University Hospital in Dublin.
On the wall behind hangs a framed slogan 'Keep Going Sure It’s Grand’. Like most hospitals in recent days, Tallaght has come under pressure from Covid 19.
Its ICU has reached capacity and it is now using its theatre recovery space to "manufacture ICU beds". "We do have enough beds at the moment, and it's important to say that, but we really need society to do its bit.
We need one last push in order to get through what will be a very difficult two weeks," explains Prof Ridgway. In Galway, the University Hospital has "four times the number of inpatients" with Covid-19 that it had at the