Northern Ireland health workers describe 'horrendous' scenes within emergency departments

Doctors, nurses and unions have described scenes inside Northern Ireland's hospital emergency departments as "horrendous", with patients on floors, overcrowded cubicles and long waits for admission and treatment.

It comes as the health service remains under significant pressure, with the Health Department saying high levels of flu cases are "a significant contributory factor".

Rita Devlin from the Royal College of Nursing painted a picture of what it was like in the ED at the Royal Victoria Hospital on Friday afternoon.

"They're sitting in the back of ambulances, in corridors, there was a lady who had been sitting about five hours on a hard plastic chair," she told UTV.

"We have older people people becoming badly confused because of the environment, the noise, the light the lack of sleep and obviously that's very distressing for their families.

"It is horrendous, it is a horrendous picture and I don't think anyone would believe it until they've seen it themselves.

"It feels immoral that we're asking our nurses to go in day after day and deal with the same issues, trying to do the best they can, and they are absolutely heartbroken at the care that is being delivered to patients."

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said the department is looking to see if there are any "any unused levers" it can pull to try and alleviate some of the pressures.

"We talk about winter pressures but actually that's almost an obsolete expression, because these pressures are on emergency departments are 365 days a year," he told UTV.

"But it is true that at this time of year are additional pressures because of things like flu - this year influenza is hitting an extraordinary number of people, not just in Northern Ireland but right across the UK and beyond - and that's putting really extreme pressure on staff in ED.

"I want to thank the staff for all they've done, their professionalism and empathy, and I also sympathise with patients who are waiting too long to be seen."

The minister continued: "Winter pressures I think have been accepted by some, it's not going to be accepted by me.

"Yesterday I had a meeting with the RCN, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, the Public Health Agency and representatives from one of the trusts.

"As well as looking for those additional levers for this crisis, I was saying once we get through this period, in late February or early March, I want to sit down with all of them with a blank page to make sure that this time next year we're not going through the same old, same old."

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