Reports that St James's Hospital, Dublin, had to invoke its major incident plan yesterday to deal with overcrowding in its accident and emergency department were dismissed last night as untrue by a hospital spokesman last night, writes Eithne Donnellan.
The hospital admitted, however, that it had to deal with severe overcrowding in its casualty department. Early yesterday there were over 40 patients on trolleys in A&E. However, that figure had reduced to about 15 by the evening.
The Irish Nurses' Organisation described the situation at St James's yesterday morning as unsafe.
The hospital spokesman said more than 100 beds were occupied by patients fit for discharge but who had nowhere to go.
He confirmed the hospital had to go "off call" for several hours yesterday, during which time ambulances were diverted to other hospitals.
Ryanair discs found dumped
The Irish Aviation Authority has launched an investigation how computer discs containing detailed information on Ryanair aircraft were found dumped outside a hangar at Dublin Airport.
Ryanair has also launched its own investigation into how the discs came into the possession of a newspaper.
The discs contained technical and maintenance documents for Ryanair's Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
The names, e-mail addresses and telephone numbers of Ryanair staff and engineers at various airports were included in another of the discs.
A spokeswoman for Ryanair said the airline had now retrieved the discs from the Sun newspaper.
North Special Branch accused
A man arrested as part of the police investigation into an alleged IRA spy plot at government offices in Belfast yesterday accused the Special Branch of threatening the Belfast Agreement.
Mr Ciaran Kearney (32) said in court many of the charges put to him 18 months ago by detectives had now been scrapped. However, he still faces charges of having documents likely to be useful to terrorists.
Mr Kearney, of Commedagh Drive, west Belfast, was arrested in October 2002 with his father-in-law, Mr Denis Donaldson, Sinn Féin administration chief at Stormont, and Mr William Mackessy, who worked at the Northern Ireland Office. All three men were returned for trial in Belfast Crown Court at a later date.- (PA)
Vomiting bug at Limerick hospital
The Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick yesterday appealed for the public's help in its efforts to contain the first known outbreak of the winter vomiting virus this year. It said seven cases of the bug had been confirmed among patients.