{"id":323884,"date":"2025-12-04T01:52:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T01:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/323884\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T01:52:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T01:52:14","slug":"trust-official-apologises-after-wait-times-average-almost-19-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/323884\/","title":{"rendered":"Trust official apologises after wait times average almost 19 hours"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aileen Moynagh,Health reporter,<\/p>\n

Jessica Lawrenceand<\/p>\n

Rory O’Reilly,BBC News NI<\/p>\n

\"PAPA Media<\/p>\n

Patients at the emergency department at Craigavon Area Hospital faced average waits of almost 19 hours<\/p>\n

A senior health official has apologised after patients faced average waits of almost 19 hours at Craigavon Area Hospital’s emergency department (ED) on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

Emergency department average waiting times released at 09:00 GMT show the Royal Victoria and Ulster hospitals also experiencing waits of about nine hours.<\/p>\n

Dr Gareth Hampton, divisional medical director at the Southern Trust, said staff were under pressure to balance critically ill patients with those who have been waiting the longest.<\/p>\n

“We really are sorry for the patients who wait that long but the staff have a really difficult job,” he said.<\/p>\n

The figures come after reports of more than 40 ambulances waiting for release outside hospitals on Tuesday – with the longest wait in excess of 13 hours.<\/p>\n

In October, a target to reduce maximum ambulance waits<\/a> outside EDs from four hours to two by 1 December was announced as part of a plan to tackle winter healthcare pressures.<\/p>\n

‘Serious pressures’ on emergency departments<\/p>\n

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster’s Evening Extra programme<\/a>, Dr Hampton said a 19-hour wait was “not something we want to have” but staff were waiting for beds to become free in wards so patients could be admitted.<\/p>\n

“Over the last three years we’ve seen serious pressure on our emergency departments,” he added.<\/p>\n

“Whenever we get to the winter time increased respiratory issues such as Covid and flu just put that extra bit of pressure.<\/p>\n

“We really struggle to cope with peaks of demand.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Dr Gareth Hampton from the Southern Trust apologised for the time patients had to wait in Craigavon ED<\/p>\n

Dr Hampton thanked staff who were working “above and beyond”, but said the issue was not isolated to Craigavon’s ED.<\/p>\n

He urged younger people who are normally fit and well and develop flu-like symptoms to stay at home, to not come to EDs unless absolutely necessary, and to use services like Phone First<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Public Health Agency (PHA) said there had been a large increase in flu cases in the past two weeks – with the highest amongst the 0-4 age group<\/p>\n

Dr Peter Naughton, a health protection consultant with the PHA, said the flu season started earlier this year, and there had been a higher number of cases.<\/p>\n

“Last week, we saw about 900 new cases of flu, which was about double what we had seen the previous week,” he told BBC News NI.<\/p>\n

“Of those [900], about 250 people ended up in hospital because of flu, which again was about a 50% in what we had seen in the previous week.”<\/p>\n

BBC News NI understands that there are 30 adults hospitalised in Craigavon Area Hospital with flu.<\/p>\n

Demoralised staff<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Dr Michael Perry said the current conditions were not acceptable<\/p>\n

Royal College of Emergency Medicine Vice President, Dr Michael Perry, said staff were demoralised and angry over the current pressures.<\/p>\n

“I’m a clinician and I want to be treating the sickest patients that come into our department,” he added.<\/p>\n

“We’re being asked to make the least worst decisions at the minute.”<\/p>\n

Dr Perry said the demoralisation among nursing staff was also causing problems around retention.<\/p>\n

“If you can get out of this environment, what’s to keep you here? Because there is no light.”<\/p>\n

Dr Clodagh Corrigan, deputy chair of the British Medical Association NI council and emergency medicine doctor in the Southern Trust, said she wanted to help patients as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

“The thing that I hate most about my job is when my hands are tied,” she told the BBC’s Evening Extra.<\/p>\n

“I’m looking at a waiting room full of patients, and then I’m looking at a department full of patients and I literally have no where to go and nothing that I can do to ease the pressures.<\/p>\n

“When you’re in that absolute gridlock there’s absolutely nothing you can do, and it is completely soul-destroying.”<\/p>\n

Ambulance delays<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Seasonal illness, such as flu and Covid, are increasing pressures on ambulance services, Neil Sinclair said<\/p>\n

Neil Sinclair, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) director of operations, said that it was experiencing “increased demand which is outstripping our capacity”, mainly emanating from seasonal illnesses.<\/p>\n

He said on Wednesday afternoon, there were 80 patients waiting for an ambulance and 66 in attendance at incidents – 32 of which are at emergency departments.<\/p>\n

Mr Sinclair said the service’s plans were “not working as effectively as they could” due to the increased demand.<\/p>\n

“I think at present we are experiencing more flu and Covid than anticipated, and therefore demand is outstripping capacity.<\/p>\n

“If things do not improve, then our response times to patients will become longer, they are already in a very challenging situation and it’s going to be very difficult to manage if things become worse.”<\/p>\n

Earlier, the NIAS said delays were “a result of challenges being felt across the entire HSC system and the impact of trade union action short of strike”.<\/p>\n

NIAS said it recognised the impact these delays have on patients and families and “regrets the lengthy waits that some have experienced”.<\/p>\n

It said “significant work” had been undertaken across the health and social care system in recent months to reduce handover delays.<\/p>\n

“While these actions have contributed to some stabilisation, the system continues to operate under very high pressure,” a NIAS spokesperson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aileen Moynagh,Health reporter, Jessica Lawrenceand Rory O’Reilly,BBC News NI PA Media Patients at the emergency department at Craigavon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-323884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}