Urgent plea for staff to show up at A&E as Northern Ireland's NHS enters new year

It is sign that the New Year looks set to bring plenty more cases of over-packed, under-staffed wards across Northern Ireland, after a dire 12 months for the Province’s NHS.

On the night of New Year’s Eve, the Southern Trust issued a an “urgent message” saying “we ask if any nurses are available to work this evening/overnight in our Emergency Department at Craigavon Area Hospital to please contact Patient Flow”.

Shortly before that the South Eastern Trust said “we’re appealing for nursing staff (registered nurses and health care assistants) to help across critical areas – if staff can assist in any way, please call the trust switchboard”.

These are just the latest examples of the major pressure facing the Province’s hospitals.

A day earlier the other three trusts (Belfast, Northern, and Western) had warned about pressure in their own hospitals (particularly the Northern Trust’s Causeway and Antrim A&Es, where health bosses said “if your condition is not urgent or life-threatening be prepared to face a long wait to be seen”).

Such messages from trusts have become almost a routine part of life in recent times.

Just a few days ago, the News Letter reported how in the immediate run-up to Christmas this year (December 1 to December 22), Northern Ireland’s health trusts had issued 12 such “extreme pressure” warnings.

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

At the same time as the wintertime surge in demand tests the creaking A&E system, managers are also facing indistrial action by health workers.

Saffron Cordery, CEO of NHS Providers, an organisation representing UK health trusts, had said just before Christmas that the situation NHS managers were staring into was their “darkest to date”.

She said were trying to handle “an incredibly long list” of problems whilst also trying to “mitigate the impact of ongoing strike action”.