Antrim Area Hospital has said that it has "warned for some time" that it could be forced to close its emergency department due to safety reasons after it declared a major incident on Saturday.
On Saturday night, the hospital issued a statement asking people to "not attend under any circumstances" after it had reached full capacity due to the number of patients that were needing to be admitted.
It has said that there were a disproportionate number of critically ill patients at the emergency department, with some of these arriving in quick succession and a clinical decision was made by a senior consultant that the department could no longer operate safely or respond to any further ill patients who may arrive.
