Patient waiting four days for admission to Altnagelvin Hospital from A&E

By Q Radio News

A sick person has been waiting four days to be admitted to Altnagelvin Hospital after arriving at A&E, it has emerged.

The Western Trust has appealed for people only to attend A&E at the Derry/Londonderry hospital in a medical or mental health emergency and describes the department as being under "extraordinary pressure".

There are 84 patients in A&E today and 34 of them are waiting for a bed - with one person having already waited four days for an in-patient bed.

Dr Sandy Nelson is a consultant in emergency medicine at the Hospital and says there are people sitting on chairs in A&E for 24 hours before they can even be offered a bed in which to rest.

The senior medic urged people to attend the emergency department alone and only in a medical or mental health emergency.

"In these circumstances we are all under extreme pressure and there's a few things you can do to help us.

"Please do only attend if it is an emergency and you have no other option. We will see patients with true medical emergencies and psychological emergencies as soon as we can, but if you can help us by only attending by yourself and being patient with our staff and giving them the respect they deserve that would be extremely helpful."

Altnagelvin Hospital has now reached 100% capacity. #AltnagelvinED is now under extraordinary pressure, with many patients experiencing long waits for a bed.

We are again asking the public to only attend ED in a medical or mental health emergency and to attend alone if possible pic.twitter.com/e7Art4G70Y

— Western Trust (@WesternHSCTrust) April 11, 2022