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Health Minister Robin Swann has warned that cancer patients could die as a result of the NHS having to prioritize patients with Covid-19.
obin Swann said the “black and white” reality was that the health service would not reject people with coronavirus who required hospitalization, but that other services would be cut as a result.
The Ulster Unionist MLA admitted that it was “heartbroken” that nurses and doctors were having to make moral and ethical decisions between Covid patients and very ill patients with other conditions.
He added that these decisions “must be made due to the fact that we have over 400 beds in our hospitals used to support patients with Covid-19”.
“Is the ethical decision that we can send a Covid patient away? The answer is ‘no’,” Swann told BBC Radio Ulster.
“So where we get the latitude in our current system on our current footprint with our current staff is by saying to other people, ‘sorry your operation, your purpose, your diagnosis will have to be postponed until we are able to welcome you safely into the health service ‘. “
Asked to clarify that he was saying that a Covid patient will not be turned away but the result of the decision is that a cancer patient could die, Mr. Swann replied: “Yes, it is black and white as it is”.
He spoke after the Department of Health (DoH) reported another 11 deaths from Covid and 607 new cases of the virus on Friday.
It brings the death toll to 836 and the number of confirmed cases from the outbreak to 45,848.
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Belfast Telegraph
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