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The potential redeployment of nurses over the current Covid-19 peak will affect the ability of hospitals to carry out surgery, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has said.

Rita Devlin, RCN's Northern Ireland director, said its members were already "struggling to treat patients safely" because of staff absences.

On Tuesday, the Belfast Trust flagged possible changes to its services.

Ms Devlin said the health service was "lurching from crisis to crisis".

Responding to correspondence sent to Belfast Health Trust staff that some workers may be temporarily moved to cover exceptionally high staff absences, Ms Devlin said two years into the pandemic the health service was in a "worse position than ever".

´óÏó´«Ã½ News NI understands the other health trusts are on standby to deliver similar instructions if their own staff numbers reduce further.

She said that "little has been achieved" in much-needed safe staffing legislation, which was the "only way to protect the nursing workforce in the future".

"As this pandemic continues, we are seriously concerned at the potential consequences of ongoing redeployment of nursing staff alongside high levels of vacancies," Ms Devlin added.

"This will have serious consequences on the ability to carry out surgery and other procedures that impact waiting lists, and therefore patients."

She said there was a "lack of learning" from previous waves in the pandemic.

"Nearly two years later we are in a worse position than ever," Ms Devlin said.

"Our members are telling us, with so many staff absent, they are struggling to treat their patients safely. We need a clear plan of action, and we need it quickly."

Also this week, trainee orthopaedic surgeons wrote to Health Minister Robin Swann warning that the drop in the number of elective surgeries had affected their training.

The letter said the "inability to provide training could severely compromise" the emergency orthopaedic trauma service in Northern Ireland.

Ms Devlin said: "Our medical colleagues were raising the same concerns about the impact of nursing redeployment and vacancies on their ability to carry out surgery and how this is affecting the training of surgeons for the future."