Royal Victoria Hospital
Belfast · data via HSC Northern Ireland · read recently
Time in department now
Primary source: HSC Northern Ireland — published waiting times
About this department
The Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) is a major teaching hospital in the Falls Road area of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Part of Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, the hospital is one of the busiest emergency departments in Northern Ireland, handling over 100,000 attendances per year. The RVH is the regional trauma centre for Northern Ireland and provides specialist services including neurosurgery, cardiac surgery, and burns care. The hospital has undergone massive redevelopment with new critical care facilities and a modern emergency department. It has strong academic links with Queen's University Belfast.
Getting there & getting in touch
- Town / postcode
- Belfast
- Hours
- Open 24 hours every day
- Run by
- HSC Northern Ireland
- Service level
- Full A&E (Type 1 emergency department)
The last 24 hours at Royal Victoria Hospital
Every reading we've collected, newest first. The bar shows each reading relative to the day's peak.
| Collected | Trend | Wait | Shift | Queue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| recently14:36 | 4 hr 8 min | — | — | |
| recently14:10 | 4 hr 8 min | ▼ 74m | — | |
| recently13:36 | 5 hr 22 min | — | — | |
| recently13:10 | 5 hr 22 min | — | — | |
| recently12:37 | 5 hr 22 min | ▲ 25m | — | |
| recently12:14 | 4 hr 57 min | — | — | |
| recently11:35 | 4 hr 57 min | ▼ 27m | — | |
| recently11:10 | 5 hr 24 min | ▲ 27m | — | |
| recently10:36 | 4 hr 57 min | — | — | |
| recently10:09 | 4 hr 57 min | ▲ 31m | — | |
| recently09:36 | 4 hr 26 min | ▲ 64m | — | |
| recently09:11 | 3 hr 22 min | ▲ 51m | — |
How this compares locally
Right now the reading here is 4 hr 8 min. The Northern Ireland average sits near 1 hr 44 min. This department is running well above its neighbours — check the alternatives panel before setting off.
Not sure A&E is the right door? Read this first →Quick answers for Royal Victoria Hospital
What's the current wait at Royal Victoria Hospital?
The latest published reading is about 4 hr 8 min. That comes straight from the trust's own feed and shifts through the day — and remember triage decides the order patients are seen, so a genuinely urgent case never waits for the whole queue.
Is the A&E at Royal Victoria Hospital open right now?
Yes — this A&E never closes. It runs 24 hours a day every day of the year, with no appointment needed; arrivals are triaged and treated in order of clinical urgency.
Would somewhere other than Royal Victoria Hospital treat me faster?
Quite possibly, if your problem isn't life-threatening. Urgent treatment centres and minor injuries units around Belfast handle sprains, cuts, minor burns and simple fractures with far shorter queues. The nearby-departments panel on this page shows live figures for the closest options, and 111 can book timed slots at some of them.
Where exactly is Royal Victoria Hospital?
It's in Belfast. Pop your own postcode into our distance search to see how far it is from you compared with the other departments nearby.
When does this A&E tend to be calmest?
Across the UK the pattern is consistent: the lightest traffic is between roughly 6am and 9am, and the heaviest crunch lands on Monday mornings, weekday evenings, and Friday and Saturday nights. If your condition can safely wait for a quieter window, an early start usually pays off.
Could you be seen sooner?
Royal Children's Hospital
0.2 km
Mater Hospital
1.3 km
Lagan Valley Hospital
2.6 km · UTC
Ulster Hospital
7.4 km
Antrim Area Hospital
23.7 km
What the labels mean
Worth reading first
Don't wait on a webpage
If someone is seriously unwell — chest pain, stroke signs, heavy bleeding, struggling to breathe — call 999 immediately instead of comparing queues.