NHS in crisis: Nearly as many 'extreme pressure' A&E warnings this December as the previous five combined

The News Letter searched the Twitter archives of Northern Ireland’s five health trusts between December 1 and December 22 – yesterday’s date – going back to 2017.

During that time period so far this year (December 1 to 22), there were 12 such alerts issued via Twitter by Northern Ireland’s health trusts, basically warning people not to go to A&E unless it is absolutely unavoidable.

By contrast, during the same time span in December during 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 combined, there were 13 such alerts.

Announcements like these have become almost routine.

They involve a trust tweeting out a message to members of the public, saying that one or more of its emergency departments is facing “extreme pressure”.

This is usually accompanied by a statement asking potential patients to think twice before coming to A&E.

For example, the most recent one so far this December was from the Belfast Trust (@BelfastTrust) on Sunday the 18th, saying: “Our Children’s Emergency Dept is currently under extreme pressure. Please only attend if your child has a serious medical emergency.”

Overwhelmingly, the Ulster Hospital’s A&E department in east Belfast was the most common one mentioned in these “extreme pressure” alerts.

In fact, 14 of the 25 “extreme pressure” alerts looked at for this article were about the Ulster.

Other commonly-mentioned A&Es were Antrim and Causeway.

On November 19 this year, the Northern Trust declared a “major incident” at Antrim Area Hospital – a step up from one of the usual “extreme pressure” warnings.

It meant ambulances were re-routed to other A&Es, and the public were advised not to come.

It remains unclear what exactly has to happen to trigger an “extreme pressure” alert, and the upsurge in them this year could be down to trusts being more prolific in tweeting about them, as opposed to an upsurge in actual patient numbers.