The health system will not have the capacity to meet unscheduled demand in the event of a second wave of coronavirus unless actions are taken, the Health Service Executive has told politicians.
Their submission will be considered by the Oireachtas Committee on Covid-19 today. It says that four screening programmes to detect cancer will have a backlog of cases as a result of services being suspended due to the pandemic.
The backlog will now have to be cleared in a Covid environment - which the HSE says represents an additional challenge. The document also says that appropriate testing will be key to maintaining staff health and wellbeing and sustaining service continuity.