Altnagelvin Hospital under extreme pressure
The Western Trust has appealed for people only to attend A&E at the Derry hospital in a medical or mental health emergency and describes the department as being under “extraordinary pressure”.
There are 84 patients in A&E today and 34 of them are waiting for a bed – with one person having already waited four days for an in-patient bed.
Dr Sandy Nelson is a consultant in emergency medicine at Altnagelvin Hospital and says there are people sitting on chairs in A&E for 24 hours before they can even be offered a bed in which to rest.
Dr Nelson said the A&E was “currently under extraordinary pressure”.
“At the moment I’ve got 84 patients in the Emergency Department, 34 of them are awaiting a bed and one of those patients has been waiting four days for an in-patient bed.
“I’ve got patients that are sitting in corridors in chairs for 24 hours before we can physically put them in a bed to lie down,” he added.
The senior medic urged people to attend the emergency department alone and only in a medical or mental health emergency.
“In these circumstances we are all under extreme pressure and there’s a few things you can do to help us.
“Please do only attend if it is an emergency and you have no other option.
“We will see patients with true medical emergencies and psychological emergencies as soon as we can.
“But if you can help us by only attending by yourself and being patient with our staff and giving them the respect they deserve that would be extremely helpful.”
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