A LETTER sent to Dublin GPs by a staff member at Beaumont Hospital A&E department, requesting help in fundraising for an ultrasound machine was written by a member of nursing staff without authorisation from the hospital, management claimed last night.

INSPECTIONS of hospital A&E units will be pointless if the Health and Safety Authority doesn’t make any significant recommendations to improve conditions, a consultant said yesterday.

Ambulances were today being diverted away from a Dublin hospital as an outbreak of the winter vomiting bug spread to nearly half of its wards.