The Western Trust has launched an "urgent appeal" for staff to temporarily work alongside their colleagues during the New Year period.

A Facebook post from the official Western and Social Care Trust said: “We are extremely busy across our Emergency Departments and throughout our hospitals, and anticipate more difficulty over the coming days. We believe it will be crucial to create additional capacity and open beds across all our hospital settings and the ability to do so is dependent on creating a pool of staff from across the health and care professions.

"The Trust are looking from staff from various disciplines including: (all bands), Nursing and Care Assistants, Social Workers and Social Work Assistants, Home Care Workers, Allied Health Professionals and Domestic / Catering services staff.

The spokesperson added: “However, all offers of help from any member of staff would be gratefully appreciated and considered accordingly and in keeping with professional guidance.

Those who wish to offer some time to help between Thursday December 31 2020 and Thursday January 7 2021 are advised to contact Kareen McCauley via email on kareen.mccauley@westerntrust.hscni.net

This plea comes as the South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) is the only hospital in Northern Ireland to be operating over its bed occupancy at 112.1 per cent on Wednesday’s daily update from the Department of Health.

There are currently 82 Covid-19 in-patients in the Western Trust, with 29 of those at the SWAH compared to 17 in Tuesday's report. There have been 46 admissions and 34 discharges in the past seven days.