The pressures felt by the health service are plain to see when looking at data from the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) over the Christmas period.
From December 23 to December 29, the figures show 722 people attended the SWAH’s Emergency Department (ED).
Of those 722 that attended the SWAH ED in the period, 102 people waited longer than 12 hours to be seen, treated, and either discharged or admitted to a hospital bed.
Of the 722, 310 people (43 per cent) were seen, treated, and either discharged or admitted to a hospital bed in that period.
Shortly before noon yesterday (Wednesday), the Western Health and Social Care Trust (Western Trust) reported that both the SWAH and Altnagelvin EDs were very busy.
In a statement, a Trust spokesperson said: “Over 46 people [are] waiting in SWAH ED, and over 28 very sick people [are] awaiting admission to hospital for further treatment.”
The health service is being hit by annual winter pressures, and the pressure is indeed being felt.
The Trust issued appeals for Band Five nurses and healthcare assistants to cover shifts in both the SWAH and Altnagelvin.
When asked about sickness within the workforce, a Trust spokesperson said: “Staff sickness has also compounded this pressure across the system. This is not unique to the SWAH.”
The presence of several illnesses such as flu, Covid-19, bronchiolitis and group A strep across the community has also put pressure on the health care system in Northern Ireland.
Another element feeling pressure is Western Urgent Care (WUC), which provides the Out of Hours GP service for this area.
In an interview with The Impartial Reporter, Dr. Tom Black – who chairs the British Medical Association (BMA) in Northern Ireland – detailed the pressure felt by WUC.
He said: “In the out of hour period, you will get a lot of people who will go to general practice in preference to hospital EDs.
“The figure that was given to me by WUC was that on Christmas Eve of last year [2021], there were 158 consultations; this year [2022] there are 640, so that is quadruple [the number of patients seen in the period].
“That covers the whole west, from Derry through Omagh, and down to Enniskillen and that is a quadruple wordload.
“You might say, ‘That is just one day’, but the average across the board for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and the day after Boxing Day, the average across the four days was 600 calls per day.”
Dr. Black continued: “Those are phenomenal numbers, and they are not anybody’s fault. There is the flu, Covid, the bronchiolitis and there is the group A strep.
“Those four things all at the same time is unprecedented – we don’t usually get the four at the same time."
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