An unprecedented number of patients were on trolleys in hospital accident and emergency departments across the State yesterday, the Irish Nurses' Organisation claimed last night.
It said figures supplied to it indicated 338 patients were on trolleys, having been found to need hospital admission but for whom there were no in-patient beds.
The situation was particularly acute at Sligo General Hospital, where there were 21 patients on trolleys. Some surgery at the hospital has been cancelled as a result of the overcrowding.
Elsewhere, INO figures indicated there were 24 patients on trolleys at Wexford General Hospital, 18 at South Tipperary General Hospital, 14 at Cork University Hospital, 12 at the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Limerick, 16 at Cavan General Hospital, 12 at Roscommon County Hospital, and 11 at Galway's University College Hospital.
Smaller numbers were on trolleys at Mayo General (9), Portiuncula Hospital (6), Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital (7), Letterkenny (11) and Ennis (7).
In Dublin, the INO said the situation was worst at Tallaght Hospital, where it said there were 36 patients on trolleys in A&E and a further 11 patients in an observation ward.
It also claimed there were 24 patients on trolleys in the Mater, 23 in Beaumont, 21 in St Vincent's, 17 at St Columcille's in Loughlinstown, 21 at James Connolly Memorial Hospital and 17 at Naas General Hospital.
It is not usual for A&E units to be particularly busy at this time of year when acute respiratory infections are common, especially among the elderly, but an INO spokeswoman described the numbers on trolleys yesterday as "unheard of" previously.
At the height of the A&E crisis in October, when relatives of those on trolleys formed the Patients Together action group, there were no more than 200 patients on trolleys every day.
Ms Janette Byrne, spokeswoman for Patients Together, said it was appalling that the situation now seemed to be getting worse. "We are outraged. It is 10 weeks since we met with the Minister for Health and there has been no improvement. We feel our efforts at this stage have fallen on deaf ears. We are disgusted.
"We didn't feel she [the Minister, Ms Harney] could do something overnight but 10 weeks on we feel something could have been done," she said.
Ms Harney said tackling the crisis in A&E was one of her priorities and she announced a package of measures to do so in the Budget. However, many of the initiatives will take time to implement.