Inside Northern Ireland hospital: Doctor fears backlog could last weeks

The crisis in our health service shows no sign of abating, with one senior doctor telling UTV that the backlog in hospitals could last for several weeks, if not months.

While flu cases may have peaked, patients in our Emergency Departments are waiting for several days for a bed.

And, one person has been waiting for five days.

Today, UTV gained exclusive access to the Ulster Hospital.

Dr Andrew Dobbin, ED Consultant, said: "In total we have around 140 patients in the Emergency Department at the moment, of which 60 of them are waiting for a hospital bed.

"We are constantly running hospitals with 'corridor care' on the wards and numbers of patients blocking cubicles in the emergency departments who are waiting for beds upstairs.

"The consequence of that is patients wait a long time to be seen, they get cared for in less dignified areas that we would want to do that for them and we have ambulances that are waiting outside needing to offload their patients so they can respond to emergencies who are waiting far longer than they should do."

While UTV was filming, four patients were left waiting in ambulances - one was 95-years-old.

The patients were continually assessed by nursing staff to make sure their condition didn't deteriorate further.

Inside, cubicles have had to be split in two to make more room, several patients have flu or other contagious winter illnesses.

The cramped space makes it difficult to contain these viruses.

Maggie Magowan, Clinical Manager at the Ulster Hospital, said: "We deal with a number of infectious problems that patients present with - respiratory infections, gastro infections, it is difficult to isolate those patients or cohort them even in the ED due to the nature of the various presentations that people come into the department with, so there is risk of cross contamination.

"Unfortunately, we are working with the same amount of staff, the same capacity, so the outcome was always going to be difficult.

"I do believe that there needs to be investment into the community and health and social care services in our communities that are able to care for those that need to be cared for at home and provisions made for those services to be able to do that and that's more of a long term investment."

The surge in flu cases has brought the spotlight back on hospital pressures, but medics here say they face the same crisis all year round and that patients are coming to avoidable harm.

Yesterday, Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said the number of people admitted to hospital with flu in Northern Ireland this winter is 3.6 times higher than the previous year.Mr Nesbitt told the Health Committee that patients facing long waits in hospital emergency departments were often having to “surrender their dignity and privacy” and said staff were facing “moral injury”.The minister announced that the flu vaccination programme would be extended to all those over the age of 50.

Mr Nesbitt attended the emergency meeting of his oversight committee amid ongoing concerns about winter pressures on health services in Northern Ireland, particularly the amount of time people are having to wait at emergency departments in hospitals.Mr Nesbitt began his evidence by paying tribute to health and social care staff who had worked over Christmas.The minister said he was “looking for levers short term” to deal with hospital pressures, as well as offering a “blank page” for next winter.He said: “I want to emphasise this is not just a Northern Ireland-specific problem.“Over the weekend past Liverpool health trust has declared a critical incident. Two others have similarly declared critical incidents, Plymouth and Hampshire.“I am not saying that to minimise the importance of what is happening here, but it is an illustration that the pressures are both serious and nationwide.“Across Northern Ireland we have seen 3.6 times as many patients hospitalised with flu this winter compared to last year.”

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