UTV Live special programme: The crisis in Northern Ireland's health service

The Northern Ireland health service is on the verge of collapse, it has been warned.

In a joint statement - released exclusively to UTV - seven royal colleges have warned that staff can't cope any longer.

They represent thousands of doctors and nurses.

With no power-sharing government they say there's no way of expressing themselves politically and without action the consequences are "too severe to contemplate".

From over-crowded Emergency Departments to buckling GP practices, we reveal huge gaps now opening up in the workforce.

Official figures show trust vacancy rates have risen by almost a fifth in just one year.

Meanwhile, we've also been told a quarter of GP surgeries could disappear.

And despite the starkest of warnings... many of those working on the front-line say being a doctor or a nurse is the best job in the world.

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