No current plans to reopen Northern Ireland’s Nightingale facility

The senior nurse said there were 15 new ICU patients admitted in Northern Ireland over the week.

She added the Belfast health trust is opening up additional ICU beds to cope with a surge in Covid-19 admissions.

The beds for Belfast trust patients are being made available at Belfast City Hospital due to capacity issues at the Royal Victoria and Mater hospitals.

Ms McArdle said “The Belfast trust are planning to open additional Covid ICU beds in the BCH on the ground floor which would be for Belfast patients,” she told BBC Radio Ulster’s Nolan Show.

“We haven’t yet made a decision to reopen regional Nightingale, but if this pressure continues that’s a very real possibility and, of course, that comes with complications and other decisions that need to be made around the balance in keeping surgery going.”

She added: “All our trusts are having extreme difficulties coping, the health and social care system across all our trusts are struggling to cope with the current levels of demand for care. It’s impacting on the emergency departments, on GP services, on the ambulance service...across the five trusts there are 190 people waiting more than 12 hours for hospital admission.”