NI medical chief warns 50,000 facing 12-hour wait on trolleys

THE number of 12-hour breaches in Northern Ireland’s A&Es have almost doubled compared to last year, according to new figures.

Statistics released by the Department of Health have revealed 1,716 people waited longer than 12 hours in emergency departments (EDs) in September.

This is up by 759 compared to September last year.

The jump has occurred despite the fact there was less than a 1% increase in the number of attendances at EDs last month compared to the same period last year.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has issued an urgent plea to the Department of Health to intervene to stop the situation spiralling out of control.

Dr Ian Crawford, vice president of the RCEM in Northern Ireland, has warned up to 50,000 people could spend longer than 12 hours on trolleys in the coming year if nothing is done to address the crisis.

Meanwhile, a paramedic with more than four decades’ experience has described the conditions in accident and emergencies here as “horrific”.

Brian Maguire said: “It’s the worst I’ve ever seen and I’m sure that people have already come to harm.

“Typically when you arrive at an emergency department now there are 12, 13, 14 ambulance crews in front of you waiting to hand over their patients.”

Mr Maguire continued: “It’s not unusual to wait six hours to hand over your patient to the hospital staff and nurses are even triaging the patients in the hospital corridors as well.

“It’s not safe and it’s not dignified and it also means that paramedics are off the road as well.

“That means the response times to 999 calls go up as well because we’re tied up in hospital,” Mr Maguire said.

While official figures show that almost three-quarters of people were treated and discharged or admitted within four hours, the number of 12-hour breaches has rocketed.

According to Dr Crawford, 5,085 patients spent more than 12 hours in Northern Ireland’s EDs between July and September this year.

This equates to 55 people waiting longer than 12 hours every day over the three-month period.

Dr Crawford said the breaches are a “direct consequence of inadequate capacity and reducing capacity in the face of increasing demand”.

“Between April and September this year, 9,002 patients spent longer than 12 hours in our EDs compared to the 3,216 patients who did so in the six months between April and September 2017,” he explained.

“This is a year-on-year increase of 280%.”

He said that if he applied this percentage increase across the coming six months from October 2018 to March 2019, then “a staggering 48,572 patients could spend more than 12 hours in our emergency departments in Northern Ireland in 2018/19.”

He added: “This is a truly frightening prospect.”

Dr Crawford warned action must be taken now to tackle the growing crisis.

“Again, the Department of Health must immediately prioritise increasing capacity to provide the breathing space so desperately needed to protect our patients and staff in the face of the unprecedented risks to quality of care and patient safety that lie ahead,” he said.

“This will require corrective investment to increase staffing end to end, the number of acute hospital beds and the social care that are fundamentally required.”

Dr Crawford’s comments come just a month after he made a similar plea for action by health officials as he warned there are not enough hospital beds in Northern Ireland to ensure patient safety.

The Department of Health last night declined to comment on the matter.

However, a spokeswoman from the Health and Social Care Board described the current situation is “simply not acceptable”.

She said steps are being taken to ensure improvements are put in place, including £8m of transformation funding to invest in reforming and enhancing services.

“Importantly, this includes measures to help prevent people needing to attend EDs and also steps to support people when they leave hospital,” she continued.