Northern Ireland

Patient spends three days on A&E trolley in Co Fermanagh hospital

AN A&E patient has spent three days on a hospital trolley in what is believed to be one of the longest delays in the NHS.

Sources told The Irish News the record wait was at the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) in Enniskillen in recent days as a crisis unfolds across the north's emergency care system.

Health trusts are asking people not to attend unless they have a "medical or mental health emergency" as staff struggle to cope with a surge in admissions and reduced beds.

The Western trust, which is responsible for SWAH, said it could not comment on its longest delay as it would identify the patient.

However, a trust spokeswoman confirmed that "regrettably" there are patients waiting for "extended periods of time" due to "extreme pressures" along with increased numbers of patients in wards with "high clinical needs".

It remains unclear if the patient was admitted to a bed or discharged following the three days.

"This situation is outside of the standards for admission that the trust works diligently to achieve," the spokeswoman said.

"There has been patients waiting within the emergency department in SWAH who should have been admitted to a ward within the time standards set by the Department of Health. During this time patients have their care delivered in the safest place possible by trained staff."

One leading consultant described the delay as "shocking" and called for an urgent response from the department in terms of planning across the system.

Dr Paul Kerr, vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine who is based at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, said they were dealing with very sick patients - some spending up to two days on trolleys.

"We have a crisis that is the now worst in the UK and significantly worse than the Republic. You do wonder what the response is going to be from the Department of Health, we accept it takes time to sort out - they are big system issues," he said.

"But there does need to be a response, we can't go into winter and see people being treated poorly on a daily basis. When you hear a patient has reportedly waited three days on a trolley, it is shocking. There's a lot of old people coming into hospital over the past few months and it's not a nice experience."

The Western trust highlighted alternative healthcare options for sick patients who do not require emergency treatment, including GP out-hour-hours and community pharmacies.

"Through utilisation of these services we hope that the pressures within the ED and in the patient wards will ease and result in shorter waiting times for patients," the spokeswoman said.