URGENT government action is needed to address a severe bed shortage in Northern Ireland’s hospitals that is endangering patient safety, a health union warned today.

Royal College of Emergency Medicine vice-president Ian Crawford described the situation facing the six counties’ health service as a “perfect storm” and demanded an emergency cash boost to alleviate pressure on hospitals struggling to cope with demand.

The number of acute hospital beds in Northern Ireland has fallen continuously, dropping by 4.1 per cent from 6,151 to 5,902 between the 2013/14 and 2017/18 financial years.

Meanwhile, bed occupancy rates are dangerously high at almost 100 per cent, way above the safe level of 85 per cent.

“The Department of Health must immediately prioritise increasing the number of acute hospital beds to provide the breathing space so desperately needed to protect our patients and staff while we await informed systemic changes that must include corrective investment to increase staffing ‘end to end,’ the number of acute hospital beds and the social care that are fundamentally required,” Dr Crawford said.

Health unions have warned of beds being closed due to nursing staff shortages, with figures suggesting there were 5,654 unfilled posts across the NHS in Northern Ireland at the end of June.

The Health and Social Care Board, which commissions services for the NHS in the six counties, said it “recognises that there are pressures on hospital beds and this tends to increase during winter months.

"Whilst the number of beds is kept under constant review, increasing the number of beds to deal with pressures does not always represent the best use of resources or best meet patients’ needs,” the board claimed.