A 66‑year‑old Clady man has described how he felt patients attending Altnagelvin Hospital’s Emergency department were being left with no dignity during extremely long waiting times, while nurses and doctors are run off their feet and patients continue to pile up.

Francis McWilliams, who suffers from a heart condition, recounted his experience at the hospital last Monday, February 2, after he began experiencing chest pains and was admitted to A&E.

He said he sat in the department from 10am on Monday morning until after 5pm that evening, when he was told he would have to stay overnight to await blood results. Francis said he was moved into a corridor and given a chair, along with several other patients, because no hospital beds were available. One patient told him they had been sitting in the same chair for three days.

What especially concerned Francis was the treatment of a woman over the age of 80 who sat asleep in a wheelchair.

placeholder image — Altnagelvin and Francis McWilliams.

“That lady sat for 27 hours waiting for a doctor on her own and never got a bite to eat. That woman sitting in a wheelchair for 27 hours — if she has lived to 80 years of age, she has earned the right to dignity and respect.

“There is no dignity,” said Francis. “You’re sitting in Altnagelvin A&E and the doctor is asking you, in a chair beside 15 other patients, what your problems are. You’re there with a private health issue, and you have to discuss it with the doctor in front of total strangers. It’s completely unsatisfactory.”

Francis stressed that nurses and doctors were doing everything they could under difficult conditions.

“As the night went on, there was one nurse looking after 14 of us in chairs,” he said. “She was run off her feet for the entire 12‑hour shift. She never got a break for a cup of tea. She worked her heart out. The doctors were working their hearts out, the nurses were working their hearts out — and they were getting nowhere. The crowd was building and building outside.”

The 66‑year‑old described the situation as deeply frustrating and called on Health Minister Mike Nesbitt to take action.

Francis said that prior to being referred to A&E he had tried for days to get through to a GP surgery without success before contacting his local Sinn Féin MLA in Strabane, where he lives. The MLA advocated on his behalf and he was eventually seen and referred to the Emergency Department.

A spokesperson for Mike Nesbitt and the Department of Health said: “The Minister and Department acknowledge the continued pressures on our Emergency Departments.

“This is a complex problem with no quick fix but the only medium to long term solution is to reduce demand and manage demand differently. That means reducing the number of people coming through ED doors as well as getting people out of hospital as soon as they are fit for discharge to free up beds.

“Our Reset Plan is attempting, over the next three years, to refocus our work towards earlier support and intervention, prevention, providing neighbourhood-based care and encouraging people to take more responsibility for their own health on a routine basis. We are also looking at how we can care for our frail elderly patients better by providing more care closer to home and preventing avoidable admissions to hospital.”

They added: “We recognise however that this will take time to have an impact and it is not helped by the very challenging financial position.

"In the interim, we will continue to manage the quality of care we are able to provide to the best effect ensuring the needs of our patients and staff remain our priority.

"The Minister recently discussed patient flow and hospital discharge issues with HSC Chief Executives, and all agreed the need to increase community capacity was the most important single change that is required. This is consistent with the Reset plan towards a neighbourhood model of delivery.

“The Health Minister is fully supportive of the need for investment in the Emergency Department at Altnagelvin Hospital and is aware of the depth of concern and feeling that surrounds the issue. He understands how important this facility is to the local population in the West and the wider catchment area who use it.

“The project’s future funding will be determined through the development of the Department of Health’s Capital Investment Plan, which is contingent on the outcome of the NI Executive Budget 2026 process. In the interim, the Western Trust has secured funding for some works to the Emergency Department to improve patient/staff experience. These include the provision of additional toilet and shower facilities, additional vending area, and an upgrade of the current staff kitchen/rest area.”

A spokesperson for the Western Trust said: “We are acutely aware of the long waits being experienced by our patients in both of our Emergency Departments and we sincerely apologise for this. This is not the service we wish to provide our patients.

“Our Emergency Departments continue to see high numbers of attendees and an increase in acuity of patients. 80% of those attending ED will be discharged from ED, but one in five will require admission to hospital for further investigations or treatment. On any given day, there may be up to 60/70 patients or more awaiting admission across our two acute hospital sites at SWAH and Altnagelvin, however at present, this number has significantly increased, which impacts on the ability of staff to assess the high number of patients attending ED each day. Furthermore, with the number of patients requiring admission to a bed this also leads to ongoing challenges around bed pressures, with every available escalated bed being used on both sites at present.

“We want to reassure the public that we are doing the best that we can to care for our patients at this very challenging time and wish to thank our staff for the excellent care they provide to our patients under difficult circumstances.”