Nurses face mayhem in Belfast emergency department, says RCN
Staff are facing "mayhem" in the emergency department at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, according to a nurses' union.
Rita Devlin from the Royal College of Nursing visited nurses on the frontline at the hospital on Tuesday ahead of their planned strike action on Thursday.
Ms Devlin, who has been a nurse for 40 years, said the staff were under severe pressure.
She told BBC News NI that seriously ill patients were "literally side by side" and there "wasn't room to walk between them".
She added: "I could not get my head around how those nurses are expected to look after patients safely."
Belfast Health Trust said emergency department services were under extraordinary pressure.
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