Aontú Councillor Emmet Doyle blames Stormont for ICU bed deficit with sharp drop in average overall health beds over past decade

Colr. Doyle said: “Despite spin from all the parties in the Executive, the last ten years has seen anything but progress in our hospitals.

“Since 2010 to before the pandemic we lost 887 beds across hospitals in the Health Service.  Altnagelvin lost 31 beds alone, whilst Belfast City and Mater hospitals lost 145 and 76 respectively. 

“There is no getting away from these figures, no distraction that they can pull off to hide.”

The Ballyarnett representative cited figures obtained from the Department of Health in response to a Freedom of Information request that showed that the average number of daily beds at Altnagelvin reduced from 503 in 2010 to 339 in 2020.

The number of beds at Gransha reduced from 91 to 21 during the same period.

“At Lakeview the drop was from 42 to 7 and at the Waterside Hospital the reduction was from 70 to 51 over the ten year period.

Colr. Doyle went on to claim that ICU capacity at acute hospitals has not been sufficient to meet the demands of the pandemic.

“To add insult to injury, from 2015 up until October of last year, there was an increase of only two ICU beds across the entire region - including during the first peak of the pandemic.”

He accused the main parties at Stormont of ‘bluffing’ whilst services are cut.

“Aontú is committed to a fully funded Public Health Service that doesn’t run our nurses and doctors into the ground with stress and then glibly stand by and offer applause.

“We want to see action that will guarantee a long term future that respects staff and enables a robust service that can adapt to society’s needs,” said Colr. Doyle.