Health chiefs have revealed they are considering 'decommissioning' Covid centres across Northern Ireland - but insisted now is not the time due to the Delta variant.
In a statement to The Irish News, the Department of Health said the ten GP-led assessment facilities formed a "critical part" of the emergency response to the pandemic during the first lockdown.
Responding to calls for the centres to be stood down as the number of patient referrals drop and vaccine rollouts continue at pace, the department said the emergence of the latest Covd strain required "caution".
To date, centre staff have seen more over 50,000 people, triaging out more than 43,000 and referred less than 7,000 to secondary care service, according to the department.
"Without this intervention, hospitals would have been quickly overwhelmed and, for this reason, we have never taken the crucial role of Covid centres for granted. Covid centres also enabled General Practice to maintain service delivery to their non-covid patients," a spokesman added.
"As we hopefully begin to see the end of the pandemic in sight, it is right to start thinking about how we decommission Covid centres and release much needed capacity.
"However, with the emergence of the Delta variant, it is clear that we must be cautious in our approach. It would be hugely counterproductive to close down Covid centres only to have to restart them in haste in response to a further wave of cases. For this reason, the right approach now is to maintain the 10 centres."
The centres were set up as part of surge planning to carry out assessments on those with coronavirus symptoms and to "separate out" patients to prevent the virus spreading.
No testing is provided, with cases either referred to hospital or sent home to self-isolate.
In recent months, numbers attending the facilities have dramatically dropped, leading to calls by many GPs for them to close due to pressures in understaffed practices. Concerns were also raised about their cost, with £100 an hour shifts and few patients.
One leading GP said that despite the north entering a fourth wave, he did not think continuing the service was viable.
Dr John McSparran, who is based in the Glens of Antrim, added the workforce was "completely demoralised" and had taken a "hammering" during the pandemic.
"The Department of Health trumpeted two reasons at the outset for Covid centres: one was to keep people out of hospital - that was obviously not the case when you look at the surge we had back in January and February," he said.
"You can’t keep people out of hospital because the reality is, you either need to go into hospital or you don’t. It’s as simple as that.
"The second thing is that they were seen as a great way to keep GP practices 'clean'. But if you look at the number of practices that went down with Covid over the past year with staff out because they’ve been exposed to patients or been in close contact with people who’ve been in the surgeries. It's clear you can’t keep practices clean because a ferocious amount of people are asymptomatic."
Dr McSparran added: "We have seen the problems with Beldoc and out-of-hours services being suspended, it’s impossible to get staff. Now GPs are even struggling to get locums to cover their holidays as they’re tied up with Covid centres and urgent care centres. You just have to ask, how long can this go on before we withdraw or reconsider. They just can’t expect GPs to keep doing all this."
