State of emergency

RADICAL transformation of overcrowded hospital emergency departments was required long before Covid struck.

But the extra pressures brought by the pandemic has, at last, prompted action from heath chiefs.

At the forefront of the overhaul is Causeway Hospital.

And with staff achieving near unanimous patient satisfaction ratings so far, a Province-wide roll-out seems inevitable.

At first glance the announcement of a ‘Phone First’ scheme, sounded like the death knell of the walk-in, open-all-hours EDs we've all grown up with.

But accessibility was at the expense of ever lengthening waiting times.

*Full story in this week's Chronicle*