Sir, – There is an urgent need for a properly resourced migrant health programme within the HSE to care for the health needs of all people seeking protection in our country, regardless of where they are from. Never has this need been greater than in the current humanitarian crisis unfolding in our country over the past weeks, a crisis that could have been prevented with appropriate and timely action.
Ireland was experiencing an accommodation crisis, with consequences, including homelessness, for so many in our society long before the invasion of Ukraine. Our accommodation for supporting refugees and asylum seekers has been inappropriate for years. And of course, our health service has experienced near constant trolley and waiting lists crises for decades. Now, with more than 40,000 beneficiaries of temporary protection fleeing the war in Ukraine in Ireland to date and an unprecedented increase in international protection applicants in recent months, the current accommodation system is overwhelmed and is no longer safe. Outbreaks of infectious diseases are inevitable and our capacity to prevent or even control them is greatly limited by the overcrowded, poor conditions they are placed in. We urgently need a sustained and cohesive whole of Government approach to respond to this public health emergency such as the one successfully employed to respond to Covid-19.
The Irish Society of Specialists in Public Health Medicine is calling on the government to activate the national emergency management structures required to enable a coordinated, cross-Government response to this humanitarian crisis on our shores. – Yours, etc,
Dr DOUGLAS HAMILTON,
Chair,
Irish Society of Specialists
in Public Health Medicine,
Banagher,
Co Offaly.