NI health: Daily battle for beds as system 'on knife edge'

Seven people with Covid were in Belfast City Hospital's ICU on the day the BBC filmed

Earlier this year, Health Minister Robin Swann told BBC News NI that delayed decisions and party politicking had cost lives.

This is a a stark statement echoed by medical staff in Belfast's City Hospital.

Against the backdrop of life-saving equipment operating in a pandemic, a senior consultant called for the "tribal politics" to end.

Northern Ireland's health service is operating within an out-dated infrastructure that's stretched too thinly across too many sites.

In fact, the City Hospital has to locate its Covid ICU and non-Covid ICU next door to one another; a thin wall, not even a corridor, separates the two.

According to Dr George Gardiner, there's simply not enough staff to provide critical care across numerous hospital sites.

There is also a severe lack of hospital beds; the system is fragile and working on a knife edge.

I saw for myself how dilly dallying around transforming health care has impacted on patients and staff.

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It has resulted in a daily battle for beds - on the day we filmed just one intensive care unit (ICU) bed was available; while that was fortunate for one patient, many others were let down.

The set up means, at times, it's Covid versus cancer; training too few nurses over the years means the amount of care that can be offered is limited.