Waiting times under spotlight
Department of Health statistics showed that during December the department dealt with 6,879 new attendances - compared to 6,578 the previous year.
They also dealt with 463 Unplanned Review Attendances, compared to 405 the previous December.
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Hide AdIn total they had 7,342 cases through their doors - up 359 cases on the previous December.
The Trust has highlighted on a number of occasions the pressures on the Emergency Department.
Away from the Emergency Departments figures were also released for the number of people waiting for inpatient and day case admission to hospital.
The figures showed there were 11,860 people waiting for admission in the Southern Trust - of those 2,122 (17.9 per cent of the total) had been waiting more than a year. There had been 2,708 waiting 0-6 weeks (22.8%), 1,594 (13.4%) waiting 13-21 weeks, 2,464 (20.8%) had been waiting 26-52 weeks.
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Hide AdThe Ministerial target, for inpatient and day case waiting times, states that by March 2018, 55% of patients should wait no longer than 13 weeks for treatment, with no patient waiting longer than 52 weeks. In the Southern Trust 57.6% of patients have been waiting from 13 weeks up to more than 52 weeks.