Covid Update: Surge 3

8th January 2021

Outpatient appointments in hospitals across the South Eastern Trust in the weeks commencing 11th and 18th January are now cancelled, with just a small number of exceptions, due to increasing Covid pressures. We will be contacting all patients directly affected, so please do not contact the hospital.

All Trusts in Northern Ireland are now entering what we expect will be our most challenging period since the pandemic began and we need to cancel outpatient appointments in order to release staff to care for Covid patients. This affects outpatient appointments in the Ulster Hospital, Lagan Valley Hospital, Downe Hospital, Bangor Hospital and Ards Hospital. As the Minister for Health recently said in the Assembly, normal business will be an impossibility.

We will be contacting all patients over the coming days to inform them of these cancellations, and we will be in contact in due course to reschedule appointments.

There are a number of exceptions to these cancellations. Appointments for the below areas will continue as planned, so please attend unless we contact you directly.

  • McDermott Unit
  • Breast Clinics
  • Fracture Clinics (Ulster Hospital Only)
  • Paediatric Clinics
  • Renal Dialysis
  • Catheterisation Laboratory
  • Cardiac Investigations
  • Radiology
  • Early Pregnancy Clinics
  • Obstetrics
  • Maxillofacial Clinics
  • Plastics Dressing Clinics
  • Ambulatory Hubs
  • Medical Day Case Unit
  • Audiology
  • Heart Failure Nurse-led clinics