Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has said ‘nothing is going to be perfect’ at Altnagelvin’s Emergency Department until a modern new unit is developed at the Derry hospital.

Derry Journal

Transcript

00:00As of last Wednesday, 133 people were waiting for treatment in Antony Galvin Hospital,

00:06A&E, and 49 were awaiting admission. What can you say to reassure the people that are seeking

00:13emergency care and our staff that are working in A&E in Antony Galvin that things are going to

00:19change for the better? Minister. Thank you, Mr Speaker. I cannot say to anybody that things

00:26will be perfect, but I believe that the four sessions that we had, that we called the big

00:32conversation, which is going to lead to this plan for winter preparedness for 2025-26, will help.

00:41I can say to people accessing Antony Galvin, I think the urgent care offer has helped, the respiratory

00:47offer has helped, and I think we're increasing the availability and the accessibility to the

00:52respiratory offer. And these things mean you have pathways by which you can avoid having to go to

00:59ED. But my visit to ED last January, of the seven that I visited, it was the visit to Antony Galvin

01:07that really sticks. It is the oldest of Type 1 EDs in Northern Ireland, and you can tell it is.

01:16But things are being done, even in terms of seating accommodation, that the Trust are doing,

01:22to try and ease the pressures. But until you get a new ED, which is several years away,

01:29nothing is going to be perfect. We're only going to be doing continuous improvement. These issues

01:35have been growing for a very, very long time. And I absolutely agree with the member about the fact

01:41that it isn't just winter pressures. And in fact, going through last winter, I said to colleagues in

01:47the department, please stop talking about winter pressures. We should be talking about additional

01:53winter pressures, because sadly, the pressures on our emergency departments are 365. And that is very

02:00obvious, even over the summer. And here we are in mid-September. And I have no doubt if we all took

02:07ourselves up to Derry Stroke, Londonderry, and visited the ED at Antony Galvin. It would be a very unbecoming sight.

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