The BBCThe pressures currently facing Northern Ireland’s health services are “severe and monstrous”, First Minister Michelle O’Neill has said.
She was speaking as the MLA, who has officially returned to the assembly after the winter break, faces calls to do more to alleviate the current situation.
During a motion on ambulance waiting times, Health Minister Mike Nesbitt told MLAs at Stormont, accepting that “reform is urgently needed”.
It has become one A challenging fifteen for emergency departments in Northern Ireland.
‘People want to hear what we’re going to do’
Speaking to reporters, O’Neill said it was “serious” not only for patients waiting at the bedside, but also for health care staff.
“We have to work – one minister is not going to solve this, it needs a collective effort,” he said.
“The public want to hear what we’re going to do about it, we know what the challenges are and social care is not a problem of exclusion – I want the executive to talk about it.”
Last week, Health Minister Mike Nesbitt announced that flu vaccines, currently available free to those aged 65 and over, would be extended to the 50-64 age group.
Nesbitt also said he plans to increase the wages of social care workers to “stabilize” the health system.
During the crisis last week, the Department of Health said long-term solutions to the problems needed sustained investment and reform.
PA MediaSpeaking at Stormont, Nesbitt claimed his aim was to develop “a better, fairer, more efficient and better co-ordinated, urgent emergency care service”.
He said that the current pressure is due to insufficient budget.
“If you were told that the budget was totally inadequate to meet the needs of the HSC service, and then voted for it despite the warning, and then complained about the consequences of your decision, would you hold that position? Are you comfortable taking it?”
He announced that his department would take several steps to help improve the quality of the health system.
He added: “It is important that we have sufficient capacity and that is why in the coming months I will be launching an evidence-based emergency care capacity review.”
This includes taking action to increase the capacity of the ambulance service.
What are A&E waiting times?
A cold snap along with an increase in winter flu were factors in the last two weeks’ delay.
At one point hundreds of people were waiting more than 12 hours in nine emergency departments in Northern Ireland, with more than 1,000 waiting for treatment.
A lack of care in the community meant that hospitals had difficulty discharging patients, resulting in long waiting times for admission.
Two elderly patients were reported to have been in the emergency department of the Royal Victoria Hospital for more than five days.
A nurse at the hospital said the staff was. Treating “the most vulnerable elderly sick patients in an intolerable environment”.
The vice-chair of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine in Northern Ireland said problems in emergency departments were “the worst we’ve ever been”.
Dr Michael Parry added that the 12-hour wait for a bed was probably a “conservative estimate”.
A consultant surgeon said on Sunday that Northern Ireland’s emergency departments had been overwhelmed. In the midst of a “perfect storm” due to ongoing “extreme pressure”. and the flu.
Professor Mark Taylor of the Northern Ireland Confederation for Health and Social Care (NICON) said the lack of flow in hospitals was having serious consequences.
Professor Taylor also said that at 10:00 GMT on Saturday there were 532 people who were medically fit for discharge, across NI hospitals, but could not be discharged into the community.