Durkan says NI health service is in crisis

The SDLP’s Health Spokesperson says escalating waiting times in emergency departments across the North are another symptom of a health service in crisis.
Foyle MLA Mark Durkan says new figures must act as a wake up call.
Mr Durkan was responding to a Health and Social Care Board statement which said that health care workers were working under “extreme pressure” yesterday, trying to provide care for increasing numbers of children and older people attending and needing to be admitted.

Mr Durkan says it is nothing short of an outrage than 300 patients waited more than 12 hours in emergency departments across the North. This is yet another reminder, if it were ever needed, of how badly the health service needs transformation and investment.
He says health care workers across the North are working under extreme pressure and are at breaking point. These escalating waiting times and the numbers of patients waiting are in the context of looming industrial action next week, where health workers are striking for pay justice.
Mr Durkan adds the inability to get people out of the hospital and into their homes is also contributing to these delays and any future Health Minister must consider care packages as part of the discharge process.
This, he believes, reflects increasing pressure in primary care, and people being unable to get a timely appointment at their GPs surgery.