Derry doctor apologises for 'appalling' Halloween service

Patients, many of whom were elderly, waited for hours in an emergency room on Halloween night at Altnagelvin Hospital

A doctor at Londonderry's Altnagelvin Hospital has apologised for the "appalling service" they had to provide over the Halloween weekend.

Dr Paul Baylis, an emergency department consultant, said the department was "under big pressure" with "no extra capacity to cope".

"There was 40 patients waiting for beds [on Sunday] in an emergency department of roughly 30 spaces," he said.

"It breaks our heart to see people we are caring for being treated this way."

Dr Baylis told BBC NI's Good Morning Ulster programme that during Halloween the emergency department "had no capacity to cope with the wave that was always going to come our way".

The senior doctor said that of the people waiting to be seen by staff, many were elderly, with one gentleman, who was over 80, having to sit on a chair overnight.

Thousands of people attended Derry City and Strabane District Council's three-day Halloween Festival

Emergency departments across Northern Ireland have reported extremely high numbers of patients over the weekend.

One person had to wait 44 hours in an emergency department to be admitted to the Ulster Hospital at the weekend.

The South Eastern Health Trust confirmed that another patient spent 12 hours in an ambulance before admission.

One senior doctor warned there was a serious possibility an emergency department (ED) would have to close its doors to new admissions

Dr Baylis said the level of service that staff can currently provide is starting to affect them deeply.

"I spoke to one senior nurse as she came off duty and she was really quite emotional about the quality of care that they could offer their patients.

"We are quite a hardy bunch in emergency medicine, we tend to be quite tough and resilient people, but it's starting to really get to people that we can't do what we want for our public," he explained.

Dr Baylis said he was humbled by just how understanding the public are "when they have every right to complain" about the current level of service.

"The vast majority of people can see we are on our knees and doing our very best and are very understanding," Dr Baylis said.

'Service is not what it was'

The senior doctor appealed for anyone who comes to an ED to "please understand that the service is not what it was".

"The simple message is please come alone if you are not with a child or a vulnerable adult because there isn't space for two people to sit down," Dr Baylis said.

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Dr Baylis said that people really need to ask themselves whether they need to go to an emergency department and whether they could potentially be seen by a GP or a pharmacist.

"If it is an emergency then please come down and we'll have a look at you, but understand that once you've been triaged, if it isn't an urgent matter there will be a wait.

"If it's not an urgent matter then you may as well count the fingers on both hands and possibly have to take your socks off to count the hours because that's how poor the service is at the moment," he said.

"I get no pleasure in telling people that, but we need to be realistic about expectations.

"The service once you get through the doors is appalling I am afraid at the moment and I have to apologise to the people that we serve but we can only do with what we've got."