Public Sector Partnership In Action

On March 12th The University sector had to shut it's campus for Students. On March 16th, we opened our campus to the HSE. Over the next 6 months the UCC campus was turned into an outpost of the HSE. That ability to support each other for the good of the Irish Citizen in a crisis is a powerful story, and it shows what is possible, when state agencies work together.

Some of the key points to consider:

  • On March 20th, UCC opened Ireland's First Contract Tracing Centre outside of Dublin. We turned the Computer labs in UCC into a Call Centre and contact Tracing Hub. We trained over 180 Contract tracing agents and each day 30 - 40 agents handled tracing calls.
  • On March 30th, we converted our Erinville Conference meeting rooms into the emergency control room for the HSE in the South - South West Region.
  • One April 6th , by working with the HSE, we moved the HSE network into the UCC campus, and we were able to move the oncology treatments for cancer patients from Mercy Hospital and CUH into the Brookfield campus in UCC.
  • Occupational Heath, under Dr. John Gallagher, relocated from CUH to UCC from March 25th, relocating the support staff for healthcare workers infected by COVID-19 to the safer environment of the UCC Campus.

These actions we contend, helped to flatten the curve in the South West region, which had some of the lowest infection rates in the State at the height of the pandemic.

There is no doubt but that these actions and the capabilities and flexibility of the HEAnet network, helped to save lives.