More than five hundred patients are stuck on hospital trolleys across Ireland's overcrowded emergency departments today.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has recommended that Dublin's Beaumont Hospital, where 58 patients are waiting for beds and one had been languishing on a trolley for 62 hours, go off call because of "unsafe conditions" while the Mater and St Vincent's hospitals have been forced to postpone scheduled procedures to cope with the onslaught.
Various delays have meant up to a third of the 300 extra beds promised by the Government as part of a €117m plan to improve A&E conditions this year were unavailable.
Patients are advised to avoid hospitals and access private clinics where possible.
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