SDLP Opposition MLA Mark H Durkan has said the whole Executive must take responsibility for the current crisis within the health service.
He was speaking ahead of an emergency Stormont Health Committee meeting on Tuesday.
Mr Durkan the Executive and Health Minister had ignored repeated warnings from those within the health service.
Said the Foyle MLA: “The emergency meeting of the Health Committee is all well and good, but I would ask the Executive parties how this meeting will help those currently waiting hours in an emergency department.
“What we really need to see is Executive Ministers around the table to sort this mess out.
“We are in this position now because the Executive and the Health Minister did not heed warnings from those within our health service that we were facing the most difficult winter yet.
“The health service is on its knees, crisis on top of crisis has brought us to this point.
“The problems facing the service is a symptom of political malaise and inaction of the Executive.
“Hardly a week goes by without calls from people or staff highlighting the chaos at A&E.
“I witnessed this first-hand during a recent visit to Altnagelvin Hospital with my young son.
“The staff were incredible, and their heroic efforts cannot be praised enough.
“However, it’s unacceptable that they are continually forced to shoulder the burden of being under-resourced and understaffed. Winter pressures will add insult to injury.
“The Executive has failed to implement and prioritise long overdue transformation. That’s what has left us in this position; it has contributed to overcrowded emergency departments, resulted in colossal waiting lists and crushed staff morale.
“The process of transformation must begin today. We can’t kick this can down the road any further, we need to take it off the road.
“Unless the Executive act now we will find ourselves in the same crisis again next year.
“Staff and patients deserve better than the Executive’s apathy to crisis upon crisis.”
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