Hospitals are using a points system heavily weighted against the elderly to determine which patients should be sent to intensive care during the pandemic, according to the Irish Sun.

The patient evaluation process at major hospitals along the west coast ranks patients by age and medical conditions and sometimes even by gender.

Guidelines established by the Saolta Hospital Group show that anyone who scores more than eight points in the system should not be sent to ICU during the Covid-19 crisis.

Patients are given points for their age with people over 80 hit with seven points –two shy of the exclusion total – despite government ethical guidelines advising that patients should not be excluded from treatment because of their age.

Men also on occasion receive more points than women in the scoring system with one point given to males aged between 50 and 60 and no points given to females in the same age bracket.

A spokesperson for the HSE said: “All patients are given treatment based on their clinical need and the potential benefit of the treatment to the patient. These are the same principles that are used prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“In a pandemic, while the ethical principles are the same, it is necessary to switch from a strictly medical ethics approach to decision-making (aimed at the individual level) towards a public health approach (population level) and this ethical framework takes cognisance of this.”