A claim that the IRA had "free run” of Derry’s Altnagelvin Hospital in the early 1970s has been condemned as an “outlandish slur” on the doctors and nurses who saved lives.
The allegation is made by a former British army officer in a documentary by the 'Justice for Northern Ireland Veterans’ group, which has campaigned against moves to prosecute ex-soldiers for Troubles-related offences.
In a trailer for "The Great Betrayal”, Anthony Brown Hovelt claims staff at Altnagelvin once refused to help an army doctor deal with a wounded soldier.
He said: “I had to go and stand in the operating theatre of a British hospital, an NHS hospital, I was ordered to load my rifle to make sure the medical staff didn’t attack the MO (army doctor) or the casualty or try and interfere with the operation.”
He added: “The IRA had free run of Altnagelvin hospital in those days.”
The claims were dismissed as “ludicrous” by Derry SDLP assembly member Mark H Durkan.
“This is an outlandish slur to the doctors and nurses who worked on all casualties brought in at that time; it did not matter who they were," he said.
"These people saved lives. They worked in the most traumatic of conditions and many of them remain traumatised and emotional scarred to this day.”
