A&E departments across Northern Ireland are currently under extreme pressure as a result of a lack of available bed space and Covid.
Speaking to Belfast Live, Medical Director of the Western Health and Social Care Trust, Brendan Lavery, said that an inability to move patients through hospitals to vacant beds has been one of the main causes of the issues within the hospitals, along with staff absences due to Covid."Covid is not the main driver of the pressures in the departments at the moment, but it is one of the contributing factors.
The Medical Director said that while Covid infections are currently high, hospitals are not seeing the same rate of admissions. However, the infection rate is having an impact on staffing levels as those who are positive for the virus have to isolate. "We don't know yet how this current wave will affect us in the coming months, but usually after a wave like this we do begin to see a drop in the number of Covid infections."
"To address these issues, the Health Minister published the No More Silos Action Plan which has piloted a number of initiatives in some parts of Northern Ireland such as ‘Phone First’, Urgent Care Centres, Direct Access Pathways and Hospital at Home. The emerging outcomes are positive and to date more than 200,000 patients have used Phone First and Urgent Care Centre services.
"The essential co-operation of patients, and their families and carers on discharge, will help free up beds during this extremely challenging time.
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