The South West Acute Hospital (SWAH) continues to remain under extreme pressure as Covid continues to impact services.

Yesterday, Wednesday March 2, the hospital was operating at 20 per cent above capacity, according to yesterday’s update from The Department of Health.

The Western Health and Social Care Trust (Western Trust) described the hospital as “escalated beyond full capacity” in a social media statement last Friday.

Dr. Monica Monaghan, Consultant Cardiologist and Divisional Clinical Director for the SWAH and Omagh Hospital, described the situation on Friday evening in a video issued by the Western Trust.

She said: “We are treating patients on chairs, on trolleys and in beds in our Emergency Department.

"I would like to recognise the ongoing work within the hospital across every department, and the multidisciplinary teams to treat patients."

Moving to reassure the public, Dr. Monaghan said: “I want to reassure the public that we are open for business and everyone will be treated, but it is on a triage basis.

"Emergencies will be treated promptly, and will be treated first. If you have chest pain, symptoms of stroke, or a major bleed, you will be prioritised in our Emergency Department.

"Other, less urgent presentations, may have to wait longer to be seen.”

Dr. Monaghan pointed out that Covid-19 is still playing a major role in the pressures the health system continues to face.

She said: “We are still facing significant impact from Covid-19. We had 29 [Covid] patients [on Friday] still within the hospital – that is a ward and a half of patients, and there's a significant impact on our staff as well.

"We're working with reduced staffing, and this impacts on the number of beds that we can provide across the medical and surgical wards.”

According to yesterday’s update from The Department of Health, the SWAH remained under pressure, and was operating at 20 per cent over capacity. There were 20 Covid-19 patients in the hospital, but no Covid-19 patients in ICU.

Locally, the Fermanagh and Omagh District Council area’s Covid-19 death toll remains at 144 people, with no new deaths related to the coronavirus recorded this week.

According to the latest figures, the Council area recorded 154 new Covid-19 cases within the past 24 hours, bringing the total amount of cases locally to 37,140 people.

From February 23 to March 1, there were 415 positive Covid-19 cases recorded in the area’s postal districts, with the BT74 area recording 131 cases; BT92 seeing 141; BT93 seeing 63; and BT94 seeing 123.

The seven-day positive cases rate per 100,000 people in the Council area was 681, which equates to 799 positive cases.