Hospitals at breaking point across Northern Ireland with renewed Covid pressures

The number of Covid-positive patients is rising sharply in our hospitals putting bed space at capacity right across Northern Ireland. Some of those who work on the frontline told UTV that the death of a woman on Monday at the Ulster Hospital's Emergency Department after an 8 hour wait in an ambulance shows that the system is broken.

The hospital says everything was done to try and save her and that it is reviewing what happened.

"I must say I'm not surprised and I must say that that could have happened in any of our large acute hospitals in Northern Ireland," admits Paul Kerr from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.

"Reports of very long ambulance waits have been getting more and more frequent and the situation is that we have an emergency admissions crisis," he explains.

"It's not about the people in the system. They are doing their best in every part", says Frances O'Hagan from the Northern Ireland General Practitioners Committee.

"Your GP, those ambulance people last night, the extraordinary stress for doctors in casualty and ED (are under) because the system is broken. The people who are trying to give the care are getting so frustrated," she reveals.

The burden of Covid-19 continues to be felt with 477 people suffering from it in Northern Ireland's hospitals.

That is an increase of 42 % on last month when there were 337 Covid-19 inpatients. Transmission remains high and this coupled with staff shortages and the struggle to move people back into care homes because of the challenges brought on by Covid-19 there mean the system is simply clogged up. Patients have been in touch with us to share experiences of overflowing waiting areas and people having to sit on the floor.

"ED is acting like a ward. It's not built to be a ward," says Frances O'Hagan.

"Those patients are in corridors and then you have the patients in the ambulances waiting who can't get out of the ambulances and get into the hospitals.

"And even before that you have patients waiting in their own home because the ambulance is tied up for eight hours. So the whole system backs up right along the line."

Staff battle on but for now, the frontline pressures show no sign of alleviating.