Overcrowding at the accident and emergency (A&E) unit of Beaumont Hospital in Dublin today took three Dublin Fire Brigade ambulances out of commission for two hours.
Fire brigade paramedics were forced to wait with patients due to the pressure on nursing staff at the hospital.
The Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) called for action to address the situation after the number of patients being treated on trolleys in the A&E department this morning reached 38. It called on the Eastern Regional Health Authority to fund the reopening of the 45 beds closed earlier this year.
A spokesman for Dublin Fire Brigade confirmed that the three ambulances had been waiting at Beaumont hospital for up to two hours. "It's happening on a regular basis," he said. "It means the emergency ambulances are tied up. The nurses are over-taxed because there are not enough people to do the work and we have to wait with the patients [until they are seen]."
INO industrial relations officer Ms Mary Fogarty said despite the best efforts of management at the hospital in the last number of weeks it was "impossible to manage current patient needs".
"This latest crisis has developed against a background of recent bed closures. The situation is intolerable to nurses who now feel that patient care and their health and safety has been compromised," Ms Fogarty said.
The Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) said it had received funding from the Department of Health for an initiative to free up "inappropriately occupied" beds in the region's acute hospitals.
The ERHA and the three area health boards are doing an assessment of all patients in acute hospitals who have completed the acute phase of their treatment and are ready for discharge. A €3.8 million package will be used to arrange alternative care for about 100 patients at home or in private nursing homes.
A spokeswoman for the ERHA said this should help to "considerably ease" the pressure on the A&E department.
Labour's health spokeswoman, Ms Liz McManus, said the fact that three of Dublin Fire Brigade's 11 ambulances had effectively been put off the road due to the overcrowding at Beaumont today was "an outrageous situation".
She called on the Minister for Health to issue a statement about the "shocking situation in which ambulance services are being seriously undermined" and said he had not recognised the "knock-on effects" that bed closures in Beaumont and other hospitals were having.
A spokesman for Beaumont Hospital said the situation had eased considerably this afternoon. The spokesman acknowledged staff at the department were "consistently under a lot of pressure" but said additional staff had been brought in as agreed with the INO. Sixteen beds were reopened at the hospital last week, he said.
The INO also called for an urgent meeting with the Northern Area Health Board after building works at James Connolly Memorial Hospital, Blanchardstown interrupted the water supply and cut telephone lines to the coronary care unit last Friday.