Altnagelvin Area Hospital tells people to think before coming to ED due to large volume of patients

Altnagelvin Area Hospital issued the advice via social media. Credit: PA

A hospital in Co Londonderry has asked people to think before coming to its A&E department due to a high number of patients.

Altnagelvin Area Hospital issued a warning via social media for those with an urgent, non-emergency medical situation to phone first before arriving at the Emergency Department.

It comes after an urgent appeal was issued last weekend for nurses to cover shifts at the Derry hospital.

In a social media post published on Wednesday, Altnagelvin Area Hospital asked those with an urgent, non-emergency medical situation to phone first saying: "Medical personnel will direct you to the best route of treatment.

"This may include visiting a minor injuries unit or Out of Hours GP."

The hospital also said: "If your condition is not critical you may have to wait longer than you would like."

The post by the Western Trust comes after it emerged that due to staffing shortages in recent weeks, certain parts of the emergency department at Altnagelvin Hospital were temporarily closed for a short period.

“Due to unfilled Nursing shifts in ED at Altnagelvin over recent weeks, there have been occasions when it was not possible to allocate staff to all clinical areas within the department," a statement from the Trust said.

"Therefore, to manage this situation, it was necessary to focus on care delivery within the areas where we could maintain safe and appropriate staffing levels.

"The unfilled shifts were caused by a combination of vacancies, planned and unplanned leave and reduced uptake of shifts by agencies. Our priority was to ensure patients were assessed and treated safely and appropriately.

The Trust added that it is working on nurse recrutiment across the Trust and reduced the reliance on agency and temporary staff.

Speaking about the pressures, the Foyle MLA Mark H Durkan said the situation at Altnagelvin's Emergency Department has been chaotic.

“The situation within Altnagelvin Emergency Department is fast spinning out of control, urgent intervention is required to ensure the hospital is adequately resourced, especially as we head into the winter months.

"The partial closure of emergency care in recent weeks is indicative of a service in slow motion collapse," he said.

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