Covid-19: Robin Swann says he cannot rule out return of restrictions
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Robin Swann said he and his executive colleagues would do all they could to avoid another lockdown
The reintroduction of some Covid-19 restrictions cannot be ruled out, the health minister has said.
However, Robin Swann said he and his executive colleagues would do "all that we can" to avoid another lockdown.
Last month Mr Swann said Northern Ireland was "facing into the most difficult winter ever experienced".
Emergency departments reported high numbers of patients over the weekend, with one patient at the Ulster Hospital waiting 44 hours to be admitted.
Many hospitals are currently operating over capacity.
On Sunday nightclubs reopened in Northern Ireland and legal requirements on social distancing were also scrapped.
People can now move around venues and stand to have a drink or eat food, and face coverings are not required when customers are dancing.
Speaking to Good Morning Ulster, Mr Swann encouraged people to keep coming forward for vaccination.
"I hope that we don't get into a position where we have to go down the lengths of a further lockdown," he said.
"Will we have to look at further restrictions? Possibly. But I'll always take that advice from the chief medical officer and chief scientific adviser in regards to where we are."
Mr Swann said Northern Ireland still did not have enough nurses
Mr Swann added that a lockdown would be a "detrimental step that I wouldn't want to recommend" but "having to downturn services again" is also something the health minister does not want see happen.
"We must realise we are seeing levels of pressure that we have never seen before," he said.
"That's why we're pushing the vaccination programme as much as we can to get people to still come forward to get their first vaccine and their second vaccine and their booster programme."
Mr Swann said the shortage of front-line staff was a result of years of underinvestment in Northern Ireland's health service.
Many Northern Ireland hospitals are currently operating over capacity
"As we see that increase in pressure across all our service areas and all our trust areas we are working to mitigate them as best we can," he said.
"But we have limited staff to be able to do that, so it really is about working in partnership with the general public."
He added: "I don't have enough nurses, I don't have enough doctors, I'm on record saying that.
"Unfortunately it's not about producing staff out of nowhere, we can't do that.
"So it's about supporting the current staff that we have, doing the job they are doing."
'We have seen some of our staff in tears'
Jenny Nicholson, lead emergency department nurse at the Ulster Hospital, told Good Morning Ulster about the pressure facing front-line healthcare workers.
"We have 76 in our department at the moment and 57 of those patients are waiting on a hospital ward bed.
"Forty-seven of those patients are waiting more than 12 hours and we do have one patient who has been waiting 58 hours.
"This is really exceptional, we don't often have patients waiting that long, but over the last few days we have seen sustained pressure and over the last couple of weeks, it has been sustained pressure now for some time.
"Staff are working extremely hard, they're under a lot of pressure, extreme pressure daily, they're going home exhausted and, yes, we have seen some of our staff in tears.
"Staff are staying on after their shifts to try and help their colleagues on the incoming shifts, they are picking up extra shifts - they're just working above and beyond, doing everything they can and they are exhausted."
Mr Swann said that he would consider again asking the military for medical staff if needs be.
"I'm quite content to ask for them and it is something we currently keep under review," he said.
"But it also depends on the Ministry of Defence as well, it's not a standing pool of people that we can utilise all the time, they are there when they are available."
Mr Swann said he expected the booster vaccination programme to begin "ramping up"
The health minister acknowledged there had been a slow start to the booster vaccination programme in Northern Ireland, but said he expected it to pick up pace.
"I think our vaccine programme and the people working on it actually should be commended for the work they have done with a vaccine that only became available less than 11 months ago," he said
"Our booster programme had been slow to start, but when you listen both to community pharmacies and GPs, it's a programme that's well in place, it's a programme that's actually ramping up as well.
"I would encourage people to come forward and not just get their booster vaccine but actually get their first and second doses as well."
Dolores McCormick, associate director at the Royal College of Nursing, said some of the extra money being allocated to the health service should go to boosting staff levels.
"If we're to fix this absolute crisis that we're all facing at this minute in time, it's staff that we need," she said
"We can't create staff overnight, we've got over 2,700 nursing vacancies posts across the health and social care system and a similar percentage probably in the nursing home sector.
"We're haemorrhaging staff, some of that money needs to be spent on how we retain that staff."
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