Doctor accuses St James's of covering up emergency

A row over whether a 'major incident plan' was invoked at St James's Hospital, Dublin, last week has erupted with a senior consultant at the hospital accusing management of a cover-up.

Dr Patrick Plunkett said he activated the plan on Thursday morning in response to severe overcrowding in the hospital's accident and emergency department.

However a hospital spokesman today denied its major incident plan had been activated, saying the plan could only be prompted by an external emergency.

The spokesman confirmed the hospital was forced to go "off call" for several hours on Thursday, during which time ambulances were diverted to other hospitals.

He said there was a major plan put into action to deal with overcrowding in the emergency department but it was not the major emergency plan.

But Dr Plunkett claimed today this was mere "semantics" and that the management were trying to "hoodwink the public" and play down the seriousness of the incident.

The hospital's 'major incident plan', which has not been invoked since 1989, is designed to deal with large-scale external emergencies such as train crashes.

Dr Plunkett says the plan can also be used to respond to an internal emergency when the resources of the hospital are "overwhelmed".

He described the situation in the hospital's emergency department on Thursday morning as "dangerous", saying the department could not cope with the 41 patients it had in its nine cubicles and three resucitation bays.

He said there were "in-patients on trolleys in the corridors, doubled up in cubicles and walking up and down pushing drips" and the hospital had run out of oxygen bottles.

Dr Plunkett said he felt the patients and staff would have been at risk if the plan had not been activated.

After consulting two colleagues at around 9.30 a.m., Dr Plunkett said he invoked the plan.

He said a number A&E departments in the State had been on the brink of activating similar emergency plans and that the health service remained under-resourced.