More than 1,600 patients waited over 12 hours at Antrim ED last month

Antrim Area Hospital Emergency Department

Emergency departments across the Northern Health and Social Care Trust remain under significant pressure, interim chief executive Suzanne Pullins told a board meeting last week.

Ms Pullins said the Trust’s emergency departments “remain under pressure from the number of people coming through the system”.

The Northern Trust has reported a 12 per cent increase in emergency department (ED) attendances by patients aged over 75 at Causeway Hospital between April 2025 and February 2026, compared with the same period the previous year.

At Antrim Hospital, attendances by the same age group increased by 3.1 per cent over the same period.

Overall attendances at Causeway Hospital’s ED rose by 7.4 per cent between April last year and February this year, compared with the same period a year earlier. However, Antrim Hospital recorded an overall decrease of 1.6 per cent.

During February, 45.3 per cent of patients were seen within four hours at Causeway Hospital’s ED, compared with 28.6 per cent at Antrim Hospital’s ED.

Last month, 1,647 patients waited more than 12 hours in Antrim Hospital’s ED, while 615 patients faced waits of more than 12 hours at Causeway Hospital.

At noon on March 30, there were 126 patients in the ED at Antrim Hospital and 74 at Causeway Hospital. Of these, 59 were waiting for admission to a bed at Antrim Hospital and 36 at Causeway.

At Antrim Hospital, 56 patients had been waiting in the ED for more than 12 hours, with 38 waiting longer than 12 hours at Causeway. During a recent 24-hour period, there were 194 attendances at Antrim Hospital and 99 at Causeway Hospital.

From March 20 to March 26, there were 1,901 attendances at Antrim Hospital’s ED and 1,099 at Causeway Hospital. During that period, 403 patients waited more than 12 hours at Antrim, while 168 did so at Causeway.

Thirty-one per cent of patients at Antrim Hospital’s ED were seen within four hours during this period, compared with 38 per cent at Causeway Hospital.