Hillsborough inquests - January 8
The Hillsborough inquests commenced on March 31, 2014 and are the subject of reporting restrictions that have been imposed by the Attorney General's office. Liverpool Football Club is respectful of these restrictions and will therefore only be making available updates from other media channels for the duration of the inquest.
The report below - and the witness testimony contained within it - does not necessarily reflect the views of Liverpool FC. Please be aware that the reports on these pages will contain evidence about the day of the disaster which may be distressing.
To view archive reports from each day of the inquest hearings, click here.
Courtesy of the BBC - January 8
A hospital consultant working on the day of the Hillsborough disaster has told the inquests some cardiac arrest patients were "treated as dead".
James Wardrope told the jury he decided to send "four or five" casualties to a temporary mortuary because of the sheer numbers of emergency admissions.
Had a "major incident" been called earlier, he said, the Northern General Hospital could have prepared better.
Ninety-six fans died after a crush at the 1989 FA Cup tie in Sheffield.
A transcript of a phone call made from the operations room at South Yorkshire Police to the Sheffield hospital at 15:14 GMT was read out in court.
It referred to an "accident" at Hillsborough, and that there were "quite a few people injured apparently".
Mr Wardrope said if the words "major incident" had been used, the hospital could have had four or five more doctors available to start treating patients when they began to arrive about 15 minutes later.
The jury heard 56 patients were admitted to the hospital within 45 minutes.
Fifteen were taken to intensive care, with 11 declared dead on arrival or while in the Accident and Emergency department.
Mr Wardrope told the court the charge nurse on duty took the decision to put in place procedures to deal with a major emergency, but added: "At the start we didn't have a chance to prepare the hospital properly.
"We were already receiving seriously injured patients when the major incident was called."
He said the pressure became so great that at one point a nurse shouted to him: "They're sending us dead patients."
The consultant told the court in Warrington: "I had a decision to make - I had a patient who was unconscious but breathing, I decided that patients who had cardiac arrest were to be treated as dead and taken to the temporary mortuary."
He said he could not comment specifically on the survivability of patients.
Jo Delahunty QC, acting on behalf of 10 Hillsborough families, asked whether the delay in implementing clinical decisions had been avoidable.
Mr Wardrope replied: "I don't think I have got full knowledge of all the facts of what happened to express an expert opinion on this case, and making a judgement I think is probably a matter for the jury."
The inquests continue.