Humanitarian charity provide “surge capacity” amid winter and Covid pressures
A humanitarian charity has said that it provided surge capacity to at least 13 emergency departments and community hospitals in Northern Ireland due to winter pressures and Covid-19.
The British Red Cross, a volunteer-led humanitarian organisation that helps people in crisis, is part of a worldwide movement, originally created to bring assistance to those wounded on the battlefield.
It now operates in an international and national capacity “to prevent and alleviate human suffering wherever it may be found”.
In Northern Ireland, the Red Cross delivers non-clinical support to the health service all year round, but say they are delivering “extra support” during a busy winter period.
“Our teams provide services all year round as well as providing surge capacity at times of high demand such as annual winter pressures and, of course, during the Covid pandemic where we have worked with partners to support vaccine clinics and provide additional assistance to the ambulance service and hospital colleagues,” a spokesperson says.
In mid-January 2022, the Red Cross was within seven hospitals in Northern Ireland, supporting the emergency departments, and six smaller community hospitals.
Emergency departments in Northern Ireland have come under extreme pressure in recent months, with many warning of long waits for non-life-threatening injuries. The pandemic has compounded pressures on the health service which have been straining to deal with winter demand for many years.
At the end December 2021, the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust was forced to issue a statement on the “extreme pressure” the Ulster Hospital was under, citing 135 patients and 55 awaiting admission, the Trust warned that those with non-life-threatening injuries would have “to wait a very long time”.
In January, an emergency department consultant in Derry’s Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry said that staff shortages meant it was “almost impossible” to provide safe services and described it as the “worst situation” he had seen in his 30-year career.
At the end of August 2021, health trusts appealed to people to stay away from hospitals except in cases of medical emergency.
Additionally, the humanitarian charity said that as part of their Covid support service, it had been collecting and delivering medications for clinically extremely vulnerable people, who have been advised not to leave home, adding: “We also provide other non-clinical support such as our community connector services which help people overcome loneliness and build social connections, an issue which has been exacerbated by the pandemic.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Health said that the Department fully supports steps the HSC Trusts have taken to increase capacity and deliver much needed care to patients.
“Our hospitals have been under persistent and severe pressure for many months. The system as a whole has been operating above 100 per cent capacity since the summer, with hundreds of patients waiting daily for a hospital bed.
“These pressures are most acutely seen in our emergency departments. More recently, high staff absence rates due to the prevalence of the Omicron variant has further impacted on our HSC Trusts’ capacity to deliver care.
“The Department fully supports any steps that our HSC Trusts have taken to increase capacity to deliver much needed care to patients.”
