A&E's Placed Under Severe Strain Over Christmas- HSCB

The amount of patients waiting longer than 12 hours to be seen in Emergency Departments this Christmas has more than tripled when compared to last year.

Significant strain was placed upon hospitals across Northern Ireland over the holiday period, the Health and Social Care Board has said.

Some 2,435 patients waited longer than 12 hours to be seen at EDs, a sharp increase on the 723 breaches during the 2018/2019 festive period.

The Board partly attributed the challenges to an increase in older, sicker patients attending ED's, who often require longer in-patient stays and more complex social care packages when they do leave hospital.

Indeed, 1,052 of the 1,714 additional 12 hour breaches this year were aged 65 and over.

Revealing the figures for the period between 20 December and 03 January, the Board paid tribute to its staff for working under extreme pressures and apologised to those who had to wait unacceptable lengths of time.

Across the region, for the 15 day period, the average waiting time for those to be seen, treated but not admitted was 3 hours 30 mins, while the average waiting time to be admitted to a hospital bed was 11 hours 45 mins.

Whilst there was an 8% decrease in the number of people who attended EDs over the holiday period when compared to last year, there was a 7% increase in the number of older patients (aged over 65) in the most urgent categories.

Compared to five years ago (2014/15), the overall attendances at EDs are up by 9% and for those aged 65 and over, there was a 22% increase.

There were 6% fewer adult patients discharged from the main hospitals with 182 more admissions than there were discharges. This highlights the pressures on community services and the limited availability of community packages over the holiday period to allow patients to be discharged from hospital.

A spokesperson for the Health and Social Care system said: "The figures released today show that, similar to other parts of the UK and Ireland, health and social care services in Northern Ireland have and continue to be under sustained pressure over the holiday period.

"The well documented workforce shortages, as well as the impact of flu and the norovirus have also compounded the pressures.

"All HSC organisations will continue to work closely to ensure that the most urgent and sickest patients are prioritised."

The Board also called for radical transformation of health services in the longer term. The Department of Health is currently carrying out a review of urgent and emergency care to establish a new regional care model for the next 10-15 years. An initial report is expected early 2020, which will outline the current challenges facing urgent and emergency care services and explore some potential solutions.



(JG/CM)