Copyright derryjournal
The worst employer now in Northern Ireland is the NHS and if I had to focus on the parts of the service that are critical I would say general practice and casualty departments where the stress on staff is relentless and overwhelming. This is because along with the ambulance service, GP practices and casualty departments are on the front line dealing with patients who need urgent and emergency care. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine in Northern Ireland tells us that the emergency care system here is in “critical condition” with the longest waits ever for patients causing an increase in deaths due to delays in providing appropriate care. Patients are waiting a long time to be seen and admitted and some of my patients have waited nearly a week in ED before a bed on the ward was found for them. Most of the patients with long waits are old and frail and this leads to delirium, pressure sores and psychological stress with an increased risk of death. My patients would rather now in many instances prefer to stay at home and die than go to casualty which they describe as “hell on earth”. What kind of society do we live in that has underfunded and understaffed the health and social care service? Politicians take tax from our hard earned wages and use it to provide a service that’s so bad we wouldn’t buy it with our own money- but it is our money and they’re doing a thoroughly dreadful job putting our lives and the lives of our families at risk! Let’s be clear this situation is going to get much worse this winter. It’s important to recognise how hard the doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff are working in our emergency departments. They turn up to work every day and do their best in dreadful circumstances. This is causing burnout, moral injury and high staff absence leading to many staff leaving the NHS and going abroad. Our NHS in Northern Ireland is underfunded and understaffed with two few hospital beds, long waiting lists and a lack of social care. All of this puts extra pressure on GPs and Casualty Departments on the front line. GP referrals of patient to EDs have dropped dramatically in the last year which I presume is due to patients refusing to go to casualty. Stormont is bereft of ideas, decisions and funding and we can only expect everything to get worse this winter and then to get worse again next year. Staff will continue to move to the Republic of Ireland to work where pay and conditions are better and all border communities in Northern Ireland will suffer as a result. We need increased funding, decisions on prioritisation and cross border cooperation and all three of these are unlikely in the short term.
