Close to 3,000 people waited for more than 12 hours in emergency departments across the north over just a single week, according to figures released by the health and social care trust.
But there is much anecdotal evidence people were stuck in departments for days, with even Health Minister Mike Nesbitt on Tuesday coming face to face with an elderly man sitting in a chair at Altnagelvin Hospital.
A huge surge in flu admissions, three and a half times the number last year, has been blamed in part for exacerbating the normal severe pressures on departments and the lack of community care places.
At one point on Tuesday, 844 people were waiting in emergency departments, spread across all the trusts. Just under 480 were waiting for more than 12 hours.
Over the course of 24 hours to midnight Monday, 1457 people attended emergency departments.
The 3,000 waited for more than 12 hours in the week to January 2.
