MAJOR waiting time breaches at Antrim Area Hospital's A&E department last weekend led to its chief executive and nursing director coming in to the unit on a Sunday.
In an unusual move, extreme pressures resulted in Dr Tony Stevens, who heads up the Northern health trust, and the organisation's chief nurse, Olive MacLeod, attending the £14m new-build which opened two years ago.
The trust has been at the centre of several scathing independent probes over the past five years in relation to poor performance and patient failings - particularly relating to A&E care.
The Irish News has learned that 12 patients faced delays in excess of the maximum 12-hour waiting time target on Sunday.
Ms MacLeod said she made a decision to go into the hospital early in the morning after being informed of the problems.
She insisted she was not asked to attend but felt she had to help.
Dr Stevens, who was formerly medical director at the Belfast trust for seven years, was also on the hospital floor.
In Wednesday's Irish News, Ms MacLeod confirmed they were experiencing difficulties in recruiting A&E nursing staff but said this was not unique to the Northern trust.
The hospital is currently facing the threat of unprecedented strike action by its paediatric nurses, who are being rotated to work in A&E.
Some staff claim that work conditions and staff shortages are making emergency care of children "unsafe" at Antrim - an allegation strongly rejected by the trust's nursing chief.
There are currently six nursing vacancies at the A&E and an additional six among its paediatric nursing staff.
The development comes as the Department of Health published its quarterly waiting time statistics yesterday, which show an increase in 12-hour breaches in September.
Despite being one of the quietest periods of the year, just under 70 patients faced lengthy delays, with Altnagelvin hospital in Derry faring the worst.
The best improvement was at the Royal Victoria hospital in Belfast.
Overall, performance at consultant-led A&E departments worsened compared to the previous quarter, with just under three-quarters of patients treated or admitted within four hours.
Virtually no acute hospital has met the four-hour target since it was introduced almost a decade ago.
Between July and September this year, monthly attendances at all emergency care units increased by just over 1,500.
