Consultant treating OAPS suffering as they wait for ops Hospital’s A&E in critical condition

is “increasing”. Mr Mcilwee said: “Just a couple of days ago I had a patient who was 104 and she was upset to find she wasn’t the oldest patient in the department as the patient next to her was 105.”

The consultant added the lack of outside hospital care “feeds back to us being unable to discharge into the recovery phase”.

Mr Mcilwee said it is “not all doom and gloom” with a raft of doctors coming through the ranks but he warned if there isn’t health system reform it “will consume the entire NI Executive budget by 2050”.

That reform, he adds, was outlined in the Bengoa report which requires some, but not a large amount, of funding “to prime the pump”.

He said we need to “get electives under control, to get as much care in the community as we can”.

Mr Mcilwee added: “We also have to face the reality that we will need more acute beds, nurses to look after those sick, older patients who will not go away.”

He said there is “going to be a reality check in the next 12 months, in terms of how much health care costs and how it needs to be restructured.

But amid all the mounting pressure, A&E head nurse Roisin Devlin said the work goes on.

She added: “Our staff are excep85 tional at pulling it out of the bag for us.

“When we’re under pressure, people will do extra, they will come in when off duty, but all of that takes its toll eventually, because there’s only so much you can do.”

She said “simple things, like even the 1% pay rise” have affected morale, since “it’s not about the money, because at 1% it’s so minimal, but it’s the feeling valued, that people are going above and beyond”.

Ms Devlin, who has 20 years’ experience added: “I could tell you, nearly every member of my staff wouldn’t take their full break, most of them stay on late after duty, they never claim the hours they’re owed back, they never look extra money, they do it because they care for the patients and then to feel they’re not worth the 1%. It’s very demoralising.”

Nurse Devlin said while “normal” duties continue staff carry on with initiatives to make life better for the people who come through their doors including creating a sensory cubicle for children with ASD.

She added: “It’s because [we] realised that for someone to come in who’s on the autistic spectrum, the main waiting area is very, very challenging so they converted a small room into a quiet area.”