NI could run out of ICU beds by the weekend, latest figures show

This comes after a further three deaths due to the virus were confirmed by the Stormont health department yesterday.

There are now 140 patients in hospital with the virus – more than double the figures from this time last week.

Of those, 22 are in intensive care – nearly twice the figure from the same time last week.

With just 17 intensive care beds now free across Northern Ireland, if the current trend continues and the figures double again this week there could be none left by Monday – unless the Nightingale Hospital in Belfast is opened this week.

Health Minister Robin Swann was challenged by the DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to explain why, if the situation facing the health service is so grave, the Nightingale facility has not already been brought online.

“If our health service is days away from being overwhelmed, we have had months to prepare for this,” he said.

“I want to know what contingency measures have been put in place to prevent our health service from being overwhelmed.

“We have had months to prepare, months to put in place the measures. Why are we not talking about getting the Nightingale up and running again?”

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster, he continued: “I think that’s a perfectly reasonable question to ask, because the contingency measures are there.”

The Nightingale facility was opened during the first wave of the pandemic at the Tower Block in Belfast City Hospital to provide extra intensive care capacity.

Asked if the minister wishes to respond to the Lagan Valley MP’s comments, a spokesperson for the Department of Health pointed to the ‘surge plan’ announced by Mr Swann in the Assembly last week.

The surge plan states: “The Tower Block will remain a protected site for cancer and other specialist surgery for as long as possible.”

Speaking in the Assembly yesterday, Mr Swann suggested staffing problems were holding back the move to reopening the Nightingale facility.

“When it comes to that question of how much do we do to prepare, how much are we doing, I cannot create nurses, I cannot create anaesthetists in two months, in three months,” he said.

The last time there were more than 130 coronavirus patients in hospital was during the first wave of the pandemic, a few days after national lockdown was announced by Boris Johnson.

On March 26, there were 131 coronavirus patients in hospital in Northern Ireland.

The peak of the first wave followed around two weeks later, with 322 coronavirus patients in hospital on April 7 and an average of around 11 deaths per week.

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