Patients on trolleys waiting for beds after they had been admitted to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda were yesterday asked to give up their trolleys for other patients.
The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) drew attention to the situation in the A&E unit at the hospital, saying it was "ludicrous".
Tony Fitzpatrick, the local INO industrial relations officer, said it showed the place is at breaking point. "The Health Service Executive seems to be in dreamland and to have its eyes and ears shut to the problem," he said.
He added it was the first time he was aware of people being asked to get off a trolley.However, the HSE said such requests happen on an ongoing basis. "Allocation of a trolley is prioritised according to clinical need," it said.
A traffic accident on the N2 near Carrickmacross yesterday morning resulted in the ambulance service bringing four casualties to the A&E unit of the hospital. The nursing staff had to ask four other patients to give up their trolleys to the injured.
Nursing staff at the hospital say their workload is not decreasing. They alleged some of their working conditions are unsafe and they do not have the space to provide requisite care.
Doctors are of the same opinion and a letter seen by The Irish Times shows a consultant surgeon at the hospital wrote to the HSE last June and December stating the current workload at the hospital is "very unsafe".
Dr Finbar Lennon, who used to be the medical adviser to the former north eastern health board, also criticised the HSE strategy of trying to direct all regional emergency work into Drogheda. He said the hospital was already "woefully short of basic resources, capacity and some vital expertise, such as microbiology support". His letter described this strategy as "utter folly".
The letter also claimed there had been no significant improvement in services at hospitals in Drogheda, Navan and Dundalk in the past 18 months since the Teamwork report on reorganising hospital services to make them safer was published. This was partly, he argued, due to the fact local healthcare staff had not been involved in the new plan.
There are plans to bring all acute medical services from Navan and Dundalk hospitals into Drogheda. But Dr Lennon urged the HSE not to do so until a new regional hospital is built.
The letter was referred to in the Dáil last evening where proposals by the HSE to cut hospital services in the northeast region were discussed. The HSE says no cuts are finalised.
Meanwhile a meeting of all GPs and hospital consultants in the northeast region has been called for next Monday night.