Sir, – Following a recent trip to Sweden, where it is apparently possible to live life with no Covid restrictions, Simon Blake asks why we are still focused on the pandemic and little else (Letters, November 2nd).
Perhaps the real issue is the lack of hospital beds, a legacy which long predates Covid, and one Sweden does not have. As far as most of us can remember, the Irish healthcare system has never been able to cope with winter. We are now effectively facing into it with, one might say, minus 500 beds, or at least with that many filled due to a problem that was unknown until two years ago.
Ultimately, when we talk about Covid now in Ireland we are really talking about hospital capacity and the lack thereof.
– Yours, etc,
BRIAN O’BRIEN,
Kinsale,
Co Cork.