Altnagelvin Hospital under 'extreme pressure'

Altnagelvin Hospital is dealing with extreme pressures and a "full escalation of beds on all wards and departments", according to the Western Trust.

A man, whose elderly father has been waiting in the hospital's emergency department since Friday evening, has appealed to the Trust.

Terence Harkin said his 78-year-old father, William, had been waiting in the ED for nearly 48 hours.

The Trust has apologised to patients who have been facing long waits there.

The Trust said: "Unfortunately, due to these extreme pressures, patients waiting for admission to a ward are having to wait longer in our emergency departments than we would like and we apologise for this."

Mr Harkin told BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today programme his father - who has cancer - had been waiting on a chair and, later, in a bed on a corridor of the hospital's emergency's department.

"My father is not well, he is in a lot of pain," he said.

"I've been told that it could be a lung infection but he is waiting to be admitted to a ward for treatment.

"He isn't eating properly, he had severe chest pains, coughing and stomach pains and they can't admit him."

Mr Harkin said he did not blame the hospital staff as they were doing their best in difficult circumstances.

"My father is frail and pale, he is in and out of sleep and I am very worried that someone of his age and frailty has been left in a corridor waiting for a ward," he said.

He said: "I am just worried about my 78-year-old father, I think the NHS is ready to collapse into itself with the lack of staff and funding."

The Western Trust said pressures were not unique to the Western Trust area and were being experienced across Northern Ireland.

"We want to reassure the public that we are doing the best that we can," a spokesperson said.