Dr. Paul Bayliss says staff at ‘rammed’ A&E ‘on their knees’ on another extremely busy Monday

Dr. Paul Baylis, a consultant in emergency care, at Altnagelvin, appealed for the public’s support and patience as A&E staff faced another extremely busy start to the week.

“Sadly, I have to come on social media again to tell you that the hospital is full and that patients are backed up now into A&E.

“We have 45 people here waiting for beds. We only have 34 spaces for people to lie down so you can understand we are under major pressure. I'm told there are 120 people in total - that's people waiting to be seen. That's, by our standards, rammed,” he said.

The start of the week was once again characterised by a very high number of patients at the hospital’s emergency department.

At one point on Monday, 246 people had been seen within 24 hours, there had been 171 attendances since midnight, and the hospital was operating at 108 per cent capacity.

Dr. Bayliss urged people with medical emergencies to attend A&E as normal.

“We are open for business. If you feel you have an emergency, a mental health emergency or a physical emergency, please do come down, but if what you are suffering from is a chronic problem or something that either a GP or a pharmacist or advice from other sources can sort out then I would ask you please to access help in that way because the waiting times here are going to be extremely long,” he said.

The senior consultant appealed for patience.

"If you do some down, please, I would ask you to be patient with our staff. Our guys are doing their very, very best,” he said.

Dr. Bayliss spoke of the importance of ensuring the timely discharge of patients who are fit from the general hospital to free up beds.

“It would free space on the ward so that somebody can move up from A&E which means I can get another one in from the waiting room because we are sort of really on our knees here today,” he implored.

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