More than 600 patients across the State were waiting on trolleys in emergency departments or on wards for a bed on Tuesday, nurses have said.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said there were 617 people waiting and that the hospitals experiencing the worst overcrowding were Cork University Hospital, University Hospital Limerick and South Tipperary Hospital.
The INMO said that across the State there were 434 people waiting in emergency departments for a bed while 183 were on wards.
At Cork University Hospital, there were 43 patients in the emergency department and a further 12 queuing for a bed on wards.
The INMO said there were 51 patients requiring admission in Limerick while in South Tipperary Hospital there were 48 people waiting for a bed. There were 23 patients waiting for admission to a bed at St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin.