Health minister Mike Nesbitt 'fears for the next couple of weeks' amid high demand on Northern Ireland's A&Es

Mike Nesbitt also said that under-the-cosh NHS staff are suffering “moral injury” because they are unable to give patients the kind of service they deserve.

Figures from Friday morning at 9am showed the A&E with the worst waiting times was Belfast's Mater, with an average wait of 11 hours and 33 minutes.

The next worst was Belfast's Royal Victoria adult A&E at 11 hours and 19 minutes, then the Ulster Hospital at 10 hours and 19 minutes, and Criagavon at 10 hours and 16 minutes.

The target is for 95% of patients to be either treated and discharged home, or admitted, within four hours.

BBC Radio Ulster played a clip yesterday morning from Clodagh Corrigan, deputy chair of the British Medical Association in Northern Ireland, in which she said: “Morale is at an all-time low and while we keep saying this year after year, it's never been as bad.”

Mr Nesbitt then added his view, saying: “I've spoken to quite a number of Emergency Department staff over the last number of days – since Christmas Day in fact – and the message is either this is as bad as it's ever been, or it's actually worse than it's ever been.

"Like Clodagh I also fear for the next couple of weeks.”

On the subject of winter flu, he said “modelling from the past would suggest this is not going to peak for another one to two weeks – so yes, we're not in a good position at all”.

He added: “I do fear for the staff, their morale. They are suffering moral injury because they did not sign up to deliver a service like this. They wanted something better.”

Mr Nesbitt said that his department’s winter preparedness plan was “mitigating” the situation, but that it “was never there to solve the problem of winter pressures”.

One of the problems they face is “a lot of vaccine hesitancy” among the public when it comes to people getting the winter flu jab.

"The uptake rates are not good enough,” he said. "I would appeal to people particularly health and social care workers and the elderly and the vulnerable to get that vaccination against the flu.

"It can be done in many community pharmacies. Many GPs do it. If you're not eligible you can buy it, I think we're talking in the range of £15 to £20. I think that's a great investment against maybe having to sit for 10, 12 or longer hours in an emergency department or sitting in an ambulance.”

Danny Donnelly, the Alliance MLA who is deputy chairman of Stormont’s health committee, criticised Mr Nesbitt’s winter planning, and said “I am calling on him to attend the assembly urgently as soon as it sits next week, with the intention of laying out his plans for tackling overcrowding and lack of capacity in the service”.

In response to criticism aimed at Mr Nesbitt, his party the UUP said people should cease “playing political games”, adding: “This is not the time for political showboating, and yet unfortunately over recent days there have been a number of MLAs commenting on an issue that they evidently don't entirely understand.”

And the department added: “Longer-term solutions are needed to address the capacity shortfall across health and social care, as detailed in the three-year plan recently launched by the minister. This will require sustained investment and reform.”

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