'Hospital staff are on their knees' top doctor lays bare covid crisis in Northern Ireland's worst-hit area
A leading doctor at a health trust in the worst covid-hit area of Northern Ireland has branded the crisis "the most concerning and challenging" in his 25 year in the medical profession.
Dr Damian Gormley, deputy director of the Southern Health Trust, spelled out the challenge he and his colleagues were currently faced with in stark terms.
In an interview with Downtown Radio and Cool FM , the consultant said: "Regrettably we are in a very different place at the moment.
"Currently we are getting in the region of 25-30 admissions per day with covid.
"And to put that into some sort of perspective - in surge one we had maybe eight or nine admissions per day and we had peak number of people in hospital at any one time of approximately 60 at the time.
"We currently have 170 inpatients on our wards with Covid-19 and very regrettably we expect that number to continue to escalate over the coming weeks.
"It is a very difficult and challenging time for all.
"We are expecting over the next two weeks for those numbers to steadily increase.
"So we are expecting to get admissions certainly north of 30 over the coming weeks and we may see our inpatient numbers being over 300 regrettably over that period of time."
Like other trusts across Northern Ireland, the Southern has had to cancel routine procedures as they try to cope with the influx of covid admissions.
Dr Gormley said this was compounded by more than 700 staff being off sick.
These include doctors and nurses - some off with covid symptoms while others were contacted because they were in close proximity to those with the virus.
Dr Gormley also revealed that a raft of outpatient services would also have to be cancelled over the next couple of weeks.
He said "sorry" to patients and said he had so many colleagues who "were on their knees" in terms of their inability to provide the care
"I am very concerned," he said. "I've been a doctor for 25 years and day by day I get more worried.
"It's certainly the most challenging time I've personally faced as a doctor and it is certainly the most challenging the Trust has faced.
"Regrettably I do not think this is at its worst."
Dr Gormley also had a message for patients - 'help us to help you'.
He was referring to those patients who are ready for discharge but for whatever reason were still in a hospital bed.