HUNDREDS OF HOSPITAL beds used in the opening ceremony of the London Olympics are to be donated to hospitals in Tunisia.

The hospital beds were featured as part of director Danny Boyle’s tribute to Britain’s National Health Service which formed a major part of the extravagant opening ceremony. Boyle said the NHS was an “amazing thing to celebrate”.

More than 600 real-life nurses and healthcare workers were involved in the spectacle as giant LED lights spelled out ‘NHS’.

Press Association reports that a team of volunteers will now spend three days removing all the special lights and wiring from the 320 beds so that they can be used as functioning hospital beds.

The beds will be shipped to the Hospital Habis Burguiba De Medenine and the Hospital de Taouine in Tunisia.

Almost 27 million people watched the opening ceremony on the BBC on Friday night, making it the most-watched television programme since the current audience measuring system was introduced in 2002. The number of people who watched the programme in Ireland is not yet available.