Mounting pressures on A&E departments have highlighted the need for reform in the primary care sector, a prominent trade union rep has said.
He was speaking as all five Health Trusts in the North encouraged the public to stay away from under-pressure emergency departments unless urgent treatment is needed.
On Monday, Belfast Trust said the emergency department at the Children’s Hospital at the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) site was “extremely busy”, urging people to use “alternative services”.
At the time of writing, hospitals across the North were 88 beds over capacity. The RVH was over capacity by over three per cent, with around the same amount awaiting a bed as of Wednesday.
Statistics listed on the government’s NI Direct website on Monday showed waiting times of over four hours at the RVH Emergency Department. However, waiting time data has since been removed from the site.
Meanwhile, the Belfast Trust said it is unable to provide data on inpatient waiting times due to existing pressures on clinical staff.
UNISON’s RVH Branch Secretary, Conor McCarthy, said pressure on Emergency Departments shows the need to properly fund and resource primary care settings such as doctors' surgeries, pharmacies and minor injury units.
Mr McCarthy, who has been critical of understaffing and underfunding in the NHS, said: "There has been no investment or reform in primary care, and that's part of the problem – not all of the problem, but part of it.
“Across Belfast we have pop-up vaccination centres, but Belfast hasn't got a minor injuries unit. If you cut your hand tonight, and you need two or three stitches, you can't go anywhere but the ED, therein lies part of the problem.
“You may have 600 people at an ED over a weekend – how may of them were admitted? How many need radiography intervention, like an X-ray, because you can't get that in the community? How many were best serviced by being directed to primary care? In other words, how many people are sitting there that could have been helped elsewhere with proper signposting and resources available?
“There are still people turning up to A&E departments looking wound changes and so forth – that should be done in the community. If the community hasn’t got the resources and they’re not being invested in then therein lies the problem. There has been far too much reform in the secondary care sector, and there needs to be major reform in the primary care sector.”
