Member's statement: Altnagelvin Area Hospital: Emergency Department

Member's statement by Mr Daniel McCrossan on 7 September 2026.

MLA

Mr Daniel McCrossan

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

7 September 2026

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Altnagelvin Area Hospital: Emergency Department

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5669596

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I highlight what is happening at Altnagelvin Area Hospital's emergency department. It can be described only as an utter disgrace. People across the area that I represent and far beyond who have to travel to the hospital with sick relatives or for themselves are fed up hearing language and excuses about pressures, challenges and demand being used to sanitise the horrific experiences that they have when they visit there. People sit on floors. Seriously ill patients line the corridors. There is one toilet in the emergency department waiting room — one. It is the oldest type of emergency department in this place. It is 41 years old. It was designed for 35,000 attendees a year; today, it is trying to cope with 70,000 to 80,000 attendees a year. That is not possible. Elderly, frightened and vulnerable people spend hour after hour in conditions that strip them of their dignity. It is not just a once-off issue; it happens every day. Every day, my office is contacted by constituents and families at breaking point. Last week, an elderly gentleman spent 30 hours in that emergency department struggling to breathe. I am told that he went for long periods without being properly observed. He had pneumonia. As soon as the staff recognised that, he was taken to a ward, but he had sat there for 30 hours. A woman with terminal cancer was left sitting in the middle of all that madness. What on earth have we come to when we consider that acceptable? Where is the dignity? Where is the duty of care? Where is the health service that our people pay for, depend on and have every right to expect? You then look at what the staff are asked to endure. Police are regularly required in the department. Staff deal with people who are heavily intoxicated with drugs or alcohol. The trust informed me that three nurses were attacked in the emergency department last week. Nurses and healthcare staff do not go in to do that work and save lives to be attacked for doing their job. Doctors and nurses should be treating patients, not firefighting chaos in a system that the Government have failed to resolve over and over again. Let us stop pretending that it is a new issue. In the House, we get angry, upset and frustrated about signs and language. Where is the outrage about this? Where is the outrage that we hear about marches when it comes to our health service? Where is the outrage when it comes to people who are dying and lack the dignity that they deserve, sitting in an emergency department in Derry? When we strip the services out of Fermanagh and South Tyrone, we add to the pressure in the Altnagelvin Area Hospital setting. That is not what people deserve, and it is not what we are elected to allow. We need solutions from the Executive, but the DUP and Sinn Féin continue to preside over the mess while picking holes in each other over things that mean little to people in their ordinary lives.

515 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 16:12 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

Disagree with this assessment?

Classifications can be challenged. A person reads every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.

Challenge this classification