Three Northern Ireland hospitals have no ICU beds available

Across Northern Ireland, there are now just seven unoccupied intensive care beds available, with the exception of paediatric intensive care where there are nine beds available.

Three of the free intensive care beds are in the South West Acute Hospital in Enniksillen, two in Altnagelvin in Londonderry, one in the Causeway Hospital in Coleraine and one in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

The Antrim, Craigavon and Ulster Hospitals, meanwhile, have no unoccupied intensive care beds remaining.

This comes amid a doctor’s warning that Altnagelvin Hospital in Londonderry has become like a “war zone” due to the number of coronavirus patients.

Dr Paul Molloy, a GP, said in a social media post on Monday that the hospital was “full to capacity” with “several more patients coming in”.

He added: “If anyone thinks I am exaggerating they are very welcome to come over and join me in the Covid centre.

“I’m not one for exaggerating. It was like a war zone at 6pm.”

The latest figures from the Department of Health show that there are now 286 patients in hospital with coronavirus, of whom 29 are in intensive care.

At the height of the first wave of the pandemic, there were 322 patients in hospital on April 8 across Northern Ireland.

In Altnagelvin, there are 58 coronavirus patients according to the latest figures.

This is second only to the Mater Infirmorium in Belfast, where there are 63 coronavirus patients.

Craigavon Area Hospital accounts for a significant portion of the coronavirus inpatients with 57.

It was reported yesterday that more than 1,700 health staff are now self-isolating due to the virus.

The Belfast Trust said, in a statement to the BBC, that 1,108 of its staff are self-isolating due to the virus.

The Southern Trust said it had 505 staff unavailble due to the virus, while the South Eastern Trust said it had 157 staff self-isolating.

Figures were not available for the Western and Northern Trusts.

Aron Sturdy, who works at the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald, told the broadcaster: “From a staffing point of view, we are stretched.

“We don’t know what we are facing in terms of our workload because our staff and team numbers change from one day to the next.”