A conflict has emerged between an A&E consultant at St James's Hospital, Dublin, who said he invoked the hospital's "major incident plan" last Thursday, and management who deny the plan was activated.
Dr Pat Plunkett, consultant in emergency medicine, said he instructed that the MIP be put into action last Thursday when 41 patients were waiting in the A&E department for admission to beds.
However, a spokesman for the public relations company employed by hospital management said yesterday that the plan was not put into action. He said the MIP was a specific plan for dealing with an external catastrophe or major incident.
"The measures taken were akin to those taken in an MIP, in that staff in all departments were trying to find beds for the patients," he said.
What had been lost sight of was the Trojan work done by staff not just in the A&E but in other departments who managed to reduce the numbers waiting from 41 to 15 in a short time.
"In this case, the MIP was not invoked. There would be a different degree of response. The management is clear in this," the spokesman said.
At no stage had the hospital denied the numbers waiting. As a hospital, they were proud of the response taken, as they were talking about finding beds throughout the hospital.
A number of measures had been taken, including accelerating the discharge of other patients, he said.
Dr Plunkett, however, said: "I activated the hospital MIP plan on Thursday and there were several consultants who were contacted by the hospital switchboard who had to come to the emergency department, and they were in no doubt whatsoever that the MIP plan was being activated."
He said the hospital employed a PR company to speak for them and he did not know why they were denying it.
"I don't know what game is being played. It is a game of semantics," he said.
Hospital management told him on the telephone that "this was not the way to do business". He said he thought he had upset them by doing what he did.
"It was absolutely terrible, horrible in the emergency department - and far more important, it was dangerous," Dr Plunkett said on RTÉ's Liveline.