The health minister for Northern Ireland has requested assistance from the military so that they can continue to support their health care services, which are currently under pressure. Those nurses who work in homecare or even private nursing have warned that they are currently working in some of the worst conditions that they have ever had to deal with. This is a very stark message and Robin Swann has stated that we are facing a situation that we have never had to deal with before. That being said, professionals are doing everything they can to determine any measures they can take to try and alleviate some of the pressure, if possible.

Services that are in Northern Ireland are facing challenges that are being caused by the rising cases of Covid-19. Various hospitals are running over capacity and there is also a shortage of beds. In the last 7 days, it would seem that there have been 8,662 cases all across the country. There are also 421 beds that are occupied and there are 2,558 beds that are occupied for other reasons. Even more worryingly, there are 190 people who are waiting for admission to the country. This means that the number of beds currently stands at 103% capacity. There are 86 beds required, in order to make sure that this number is brought down. When you look at care homes, there are 108 Covid outbreaks and this translates to two or more cases in a single facility. This was confirmed as of the 17th of September.
Of course, the cases should drop soon as people are getting vaccinated, but it does not change the fact that nurses are exhausted and that they are simply not going to be able to do their job if something is not done soon.