The Dublin hospital where a patient claimed his trolley in the A&E department was taken by another patient while he was using the toilet said yesterday patients were never moved without being informed.
Tallaght Hospital said it accepted after it investigated a complaint from Mr Paul Byrne (48), from Tallaght, that he had to move from one trolley to another after a patient in a more serious condition arrived in the unit and needed a cubicle.
However, it said Mr Byrne's claim that he was left to wander the department to find another trolley was untrue.
Mr Byrne, whose complaint was reported in yesterday's Irish Times, said last night he stood over his story.
He claimed he was in a cubicle in the A&E unit with a curtain around him when he left briefly to use the toilet.
"When I came back a nurse was stripping my trolley for another patient. She gave me my top and my oxygen, and told me to find a trolley on the corridor.
"I didn't know what trolley to get on to. I walked down along the corridor, and there were a few empty ones."
The hospital's chief executive, Mr Michael Lyons, said the patient was moved, but he was moved by a nurse manager who escorted him to a trolley.
"He was in an emergency cubicle, and another person needed it. He was not left wandering around."
Earlier, in a statement, the hospital said: "Following a hospital investigation, we believe that the account as reported is inaccurate.
"It is normal for a patient to be moved to another bed/trolley after their assessment so that they can free-up space for the life-threatening admissions which are part of the day-to-day work of an A&E department in any major hospital.
"In such cases, staff do explain to the patient why they must be moved."