To ask the Minister of Health, following the advice from Causeway Hospital Accident and Emergency department on December 15 for people not to attend the department under any circumstances, (i) how many calls were received from within the hospital's catchment area by the Use Phone First number on this date; (ii) how many calls were received on each day from this area in each of the previous two weeks; and (iii) how many fatalities were recorded of people who had previously called the phone number on these days.

Information on the number of ‘Phone First’ calls received by the Causeway emergency department were provided by the Northern Health and Social Care Trust.

(i) On 15th December 2020, 101 ‘Phone First’ calls were received within the Causeway hospital’s catchment area, 21 of which were directed to Causeway ED, (ii) information on the number of ‘Phone First’ calls received from the Causeway hospital’s catchment area, for each day between 1st December 2020 to 14th December 2020 is detailed in the table attached, (iii) there were no fatalities recorded for people who called the ‘Phone First’ number between the 1st December and 15th December 2020.

Number of ‘Phone First’ Calls Received within the Causeway Catchment Area (1st December 2020 – 14th December 2020)