The Irish Medical Organisation has warned that the flu has hit Ireland "fast and hard" and will add enormous strain to the already stretched public hospital system.
Consultant in Emergency Medicine in Beaumont Hospital in Dublin and a member of the Consultant Committee of the IMO Dr Peadar Gilligan said that flu has come early and is accelerating in terms of the number of cases presenting to GPs and Emergency Departments.
"There was a doubling of cases over the course of the last two weeks reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre," he said.
"The number of people hospitalised with influenza is in excess of 500 currently and is projected to exceed 1,000 in the coming weeks."
He added that in real terms that means the equivalent of two large hospitals in a system hugely challenged by the lack of hospital beds.
"To date nine people have died from influenza in Ireland this flu season, all but one of whom were over 65 years of age," he said.
Dr Gilligan said that the surge in patients needing hospital beds has again highlighted the shortage of beds in the system here.
Western Correspondent Pat McGrath reports from Galway on the current flu outbreak
He said: "Irish acute hospitals run at 97% to 110% occupancy due to inadequate capacity in the system to address the health care needs of our population.
"This allows for little or no capacity to deal with any increase in workload. Most Irish acute hospitals, even before the influenza season started, were utilising their surge capacity i.e. sitting in-patients in chairs, managing in-patients on trolleys in day wards, in endoscopy suites, in cardiology day wards, as extra patients on wards and on the corridors of Emergency Departments and wards.
"The rise in patient attendances to Emergency Departments and the associated increased numbers requiring admission to hospital leads to real challenges in providing safe care."
Dr Gilligan urged the public, particularly vulnerable patients, to get the flu vaccine as quickly as possible and to avoid contact with others if any symptoms are showing (runny nose, cough, lack of energy etc).
He said: "If you have these symptoms and have to be in contact with others wear a mask, wash your hands regularly and limit the contact time. Not all patients with the flu need to seek medical attention.
"The symptoms tend to last for two weeks. Viruses do not respond to antibiotics and so the treatment is to keep well hydrated with oral fluids, treat the aches and pains with paracetamol and ibuprofen if you are not allergic to them.
"Consider seeking medical attention if you get the flu and are sick with it and are immunocompromised, have a respiratory condition, are obese or if you feel markedly short of breath or are unable to keep hydrated."
Visitor restrictions at all HSE acute hospitals in Cork and Kerry
Visitor restrictions have been introduced at all HSE acute hospitals in Cork and Kerry.
HSE South West says the measure is necessary because of high numbers of patients with influenza.
One visitor per patient will be allowed during strictly enforced visiting times. All visitors will be asked to wear surgical masks, which will be provided.
The restrictions apply to Cork University Hospital; University Hospital Kerry, Bantry General Hospital and Mallow General Hospital.
HSE South West Regional Director of Public Health, Dr Anne Sheahan says given increasing cases of flu in the community, they have to take these measures to keep patients safe.
HSE South West is also warning of high levels of presentations and long waiting times at the Emergency Department at Cork University Hospital.
They are urging the public to "think three times" before coming to the Emergency Department at CUH.
Think once - your local pharmacy; think twice - your GP or out of hours service; and think a third time - the injury units in Mallow, Bantry and Gurranabraher.
Flu peak expected on Christmas week
Meanwhile, HSE Chief Executive Bernard Gloster has said this year's flu season has hit Irish hospitals hard and "we're nowhere near the peak".
Speaking on RTÉ's This Week, Mr Gloster added that hospital emegency department attendance was at its "highest ever" last Monday.
"The flu is much earlier this year, it's two weeks ahead of time," Mr Gloster said.
He added that there are an additional 100 patients in Irish hospitals with either Covid-19 or RSV. There have been around 2,900 flu cases reported up to Saturday of last week," Mr Gloster said and he expects the figure to almost double when he receives the figures for last week's cases.
Based on current modelling, Mr Gloster expects the peak of flu this year to be Christmas week and the first weeks of January 2026.
"In terms of the impact on the healthcare system, flu can rise and fall or it can rise and stay," Mr Gloster said.
"And if it rises and stays or plateaus, it has a long tail effect on the healthcare system and will soar right through January."
Mr Gloster said the HSE response to the flu season includes about 140,000 patients to be seen in extra GP clinics starting tomorrow.
"That's about 20,000 GP hours," he said.
"We've targeted another 20,000 GP hours to start coming out of St Stephen's Day for the GP out of our services and those clinics will target respiratory patients.
"Of the 140,000, about 98,000 of those would be public patients."
The GPs will run clinics outside of normal surgery hours, between 7am and 9am and 5pm and 7pm.
There will also be clinics on Saturday mornings.
Mr Gloster said that one way to increase hospital capacity was to reduce the numbers attending emergency departments and that is why they are running more GP clinics.
"The second way we create capacity is through the management of patient flow across the week," he said.
"We are now discharging about 15% of our volume of patients over weekends, we weren't doing that this time last year."
Mr Gloster added: "Emergency medicine and emergency departments are essentially about almost life-threatening situations.
"But that doesn't remove the fact that people can come and people will be seen.
"I think the message our hospitals are trying to communicate to people is if you come and you are triaged and you're triaged as being safe to wait, you will have to wait because of the infection control in the hospital."
Additional reporting: Jennie O'Sullivan
