EMERGENCY Department services across Belfast remain under "extraordinary pressure" into the New Year.
Belfast Trust said that during the busy post-Christmas and New Year period, the Royal Victoria Hospital has been particularly busy with sick patients arriving by ambulance or self-presenting with a variety of serious illnesses including Covid-19 and flu.
At midday on Tuesday, 72 patients were waiting over 12 hours in the Emergency Department at the RVH. Average waiting times are usually around four hours.
A total of 123 patients were waiting in the RVH Emergency Department with 95 patients waiting for admission to a hospital bed.
A total of 234 people attended the RVH ED from midnight on January 1 to midnight on January 2.
The waiting times are less severe at the Mater Hospital in North Belfast with 23 patients waiting over 12 hours in the Emergency Department and 23 patients waiting for admission to a hospital bed.
94 people attended the Mater Hospital ED from midnight on January 1 to midnight on January 2.
North Belfast Sinn Féin MLA Carál Ní Chuilín said huge concern remains around the ongoing crisis in Health and Social Care.
"Staff have been recalled into hospitals at a regular basis and this is not sustainable.
"The RQIA are aware of the pressures that staff face and also of concerns that staff have raised about patient safety when trying to provide treatment and care in overcrowded EDs.
"Staff are striking not only for decent pay and conditions but also to highlight and protect the NHS from a savage Tory privatisation agenda.
“With each day that passes the need to restore a functioning Assembly Executive becomes more stark.
“It is long past the time when the DUP need to stop blocking progress and get back to work.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Belfast Trust said: "Our staff work every day under the most challenging conditions while doing their very best for their patients. All of us in Health and Social Care know this situation is far from ideal.
"In Belfast Trust, directors, alongside medical, nursing and professional leads work with total focus every day with our entire staff body to address the demand for our services.
"Our hospitals continue to be under considerable pressure and we need to ensure our beds are available for patients who need them most.
"We are asking patients, who have been told by a doctor that they can be discharged, and their families, to work with us to get home or into appropriate community care."
