SICK rates in the health service are soaring and staff morale is "the lowest it has been in years", two Royal Colleges representing thousands of nurses and surgeons in Northern Ireland have warned.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and The Royal College of Surgeons of England have united to call for "drastic action" to address staffing issues.
At a joint pre-election event at Belfast Castle yesterday, the colleges said pressures in the health service must be tackled as the next assembly's number one priority.
They said some staff have felt burnt out and are leaving the profession after two years on the Covid pandemic frontline. The colleges said low hospital staffing levels were "wreaking havoc" on waiting lists for planned operations.
They also said waiting lists in the north were dire before the pandemic and are now much worse.
Around one in four people in Northern Ireland are on a waiting list, either to see a consultant for the first time, or for surgery or treatment.
Professor Mark Taylor, Northern Ireland director of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, called for key changes, including better support for patients.
"Patients deserve better and we are determined to deliver more timely care for people that have been languishing for years, waiting for an appointment, or for surgery," he said.
"Our surgical manifesto calls for stronger workforce planning, more surgical hubs, implementation of existing waiting list plans, and better support for patients while they wait for the care they so desperately need.
"We need to have that honest conversation with patients about the challenges we face. They deserve to know how long they will have to wait for their operation."
The RCN's Northern Ireland director, Rita Devlin, said there are not enough nurses or other healthcare staff to care for patients.
"The greatest challenge for the next assembly and executive is to deliver a workforce capable of meeting the health and social care needs of the people of Northern Ireland," she said.
"Health service staff are an asset to be valued and supported – not a cost to be controlled or reduced.
"Alongside our medical colleagues, nursing has a leading role to play in rebuilding services and targeting the unacceptable health inequalities that exist here.
"We need our politicians to take urgent and meaningful action to ensure the crisis we’re currently facing deepens no further."
