Nurses warn A&E chaos threatens lives

NURSES' representatives have warned that patients' lives are at risk because of the massive overcrowding that crippled A&E units in Dublin yesterday.

Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) industrial relations officer Kevin O'Connor said the situation at Tallaght, James Connolly Memorial, Beaumont and the Mater hospitals in Dublin was "dire" and that none of the hospitals had a contingency plan to alleviate the situation.

At lunchtime yesterday, there were about 120 people on trolleys in the four hospitals, including one patient at James Connolly Memorial who had spent eight days on a trolley awaiting admission.