Top doctor in emotional warning as Derry A&E is 'overrun' with record number of patients

An emergency medicine consultant has issued a heartfelt warning after a hospital A&E was “overrun” with a record number of patients.

Dr Paul Bayliss, a consultant at Altnagelvin Emergency Department in Derry, issued the warning on Tuesday – a day after the Western Trust had issued a similar warning about the number of patients.

Dr Bayliss, in a video appeal posted on social media, said: “We hit a new record of 150 patients in the department at one time. Now, you’ve got to understand the size of our department. We have 45 cubicles with maybe 50 chairs in the waiting room so when 150 people are here, you can imagine, we are simply overrun.”

Dr Bayliss continued: “Now, the message has to be in these times when we are under this much pressure we are an emergencies only service.

“If you believe you have an emergency problem – a heart attack, a stroke, a broken bone – please come. We are not closed. But the service is very, very, very pressurised. We will triage you, a nurse will see you on arrival, we’ll get a heart trace if it’s chest pain. If there’s a real problem, we should be able to get you sorted, even in these circumstances. If it’s something minor, then you’ll be asked to wait. No one gets turned away, but you will be asked to wait.”

Altnagelvin Hospital Emergency Department, Derry.

He added: “You need to be clear, the waiting times in this situation are eight, ten, twelve hours. It breaks my heart to tell you that but that’s the reality of what we’re dealing with.”

He also offered an explanation as to why reason the hospital is under so much pressure, saying: “The reason why we’re in this situation is because we’ve got problems with patients leaving the hospital, this exit block.

“If you have got a family member in the hospital and you can help in the discharge of that person by getting them home and getting them cared for by family in the short term while they’re waiting for a package of care to be put together, that would be a godsend to us.”

He added: “Every patient that leaves the ward means one patient comes up from the ED, which means one patient comes in from the back of the ambulance – that’s how tight things are.”

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