Two elderly patients have been in the emergency department (ED) of the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) in Belfast for more than five days, BBC News NI can reveal.
This comes after more than 500 patients were unable to be discharged from Northern Ireland's hospitals on Sunday night, despite being medically fit.
With no suitable care for them in the community, it meant they remained in beds preventing other sick people from being admitted to hospital wards.
Lead nurse Claire Wilmont said that staff in the RVH were "treating the most vulnerable elderly sick patients in an intolerable environment".
At 17:00 GMT on Monday, 1,052 people were in Northern Ireland's nine EDs, up from 797 on Sunday night.
There were 349 people who had waited more than 12 hours.
The Department of Health said longer-term solutions required sustained investment and reform.
Source: BBC News, 6 January 2025
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