Consultant warns of hospitals crisis as 250 wait for in-patient bed

By Jonathan McCambridge, PA

An emergency department consultant has warned that hospitals in Northern Ireland are facing a “crisis” this winter.

Hospitals across the region say they have experienced significant pressure in recent days with a growing number of patients waiting in casualty departments because of a shortage of in-patient beds.

Dr Andrew Dobbin, from the Ulster Hospital, said part of the pressure was caused by patients who have not been vaccinated against Covid.

He told the BBC: “Today has been a very difficult day from the very start. We have got significant crowding in our emergency department, but not only in the Ulster Hospital, I think it is seen across the region.

“I think at the minute there are around 250 patients who have been seen and admitted to hospital who are still sitting in emergency departments across the region; 50 of those are on the Ulster site.

“In fact, over the last 24 hours in the region there have been 411 patients who have waited more than 12 hours in our EDs, which is completely unacceptable because we know that is linked to the quality of care that is being given.”

Dr Dobbin added: “Our ability to function for those that most need our care, those that are being brought to us by ambulances are having to wait for prolonged periods outside and we know the knock-on effect of that is lack of ambulances to respond to other people who are in need.

“The 250 are people who have been seen, who have been treated, and they need to go into in-patient beds for further care and those are patients who are waiting for in-patient beds.

“These are the patients who are coming in to us at the acute end of their care so a high proportion of those patients will have come by ambulance and they are sick.

“I think if you were speaking to anyone from the Southern Trust, the Belfast Trust, the Northern Trust or Western Trust, totally across the region at the moment the pressures are immense.

The consultant was asked if a significant part of the pressure was the number of people who have not received a Covid vaccination.

He said: “Undoubtedly, that a significant additional pressure at the moment. I think if we didn’t have that factor it would be a very different situation.

“In frontline services we expect things to get more difficult as winter goes on. We are going to see more coronavirus, Northern Ireland has struggled with vaccination uptake. We are going to see more flu. I think we are unfortunately going to have to expect things to get worse.

“If things continue in this direction, it is a crisis and that will mean some strong leadership in terms of how we manage it.”