BBC News
By Marie-Louise Connolly
Published
image captionRobin Swann issued a stark warning about NI's health service to UUP colleagues
Party political point-scoring could be the "death knell" for Northern Ireland's health service, the health minister has said.
The warning comes as the public are warned to use emergency services "appropriately".
Robin Swann's strongly worded message was made during a speech to Ulster Unionist assembly members.
He also warned that fixing the health service will require "unprecedented collective action from the executive".
While Mr Swann has spoken about a broken health service in his capacity as health minister, this is the first time he has warned party colleagues about the whole system being in "big trouble".