Nesbitt says Altnagelvin needs new ED after encountering patient on chairs in corridor for four days

Transcript

00:00But I have had several planned and short notice visits, two today to Altena Gelbin, which is the oldest ED,

00:07and this afternoon I was in the Ulster, which is the newest.

00:11And there are common themes here.

00:13Patients, I think, arrive with a reasonable expectation that they will have to surrender their dignity and their privacy,

00:20but that is often the case in these crisis times.

00:24And the staff are suffering moral injury.

00:26They did not sign up to deliver a service in this way.

00:30I mean, I've visited today.

00:32I've been in two EDs, Altena Gelbin and Ulster.

00:35And the common theme among the staff is that when patients are coming in,

00:40because they're spending much longer than they should in an ED department,

00:45they are suffering harm, both physical and mental.

00:49And, of course, that, by definition, is bad for them.

00:53But it also makes the challenge of offering them cures more difficult,

00:58because the problem becomes more profound.

01:02And, of course, that impacts on what I was talking about in terms of the moral injury to staff

01:08who are seeing this as they go about their shifts.

01:13And it really hurts, and I get that.

01:18And to see people sitting, as I did this morning at Altena Gelbin.

01:23A man has been in the same chair for four days.

01:25It's Friday.

01:26Four days.

01:28Where's the dignity?

01:29Where's the privacy?

01:30Because that chair is in the corridor.

01:33There were three small plastic chairs side by side with a set of blankets and a pillow on it.

01:41The patient had obviously gone off to do something.

01:44At Altena Gelbin, for example, the wash facilities.

01:47I think there are two toilets in the ED.

01:48There are no washing facilities for people who are in there for day after day after day.

01:54So it needs a new ED at Altena Gelbin, and they will get one, but it will probably be five years.