Accident and emergency (A&E) departments at Dublin's acute hospitals are still dealing with a backlog of patients that reached crisis point again at the weekend.
The Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) has called for an emergency meeting with management at Beaumont, the Mater, Tallaght, St James's and James Connolly Memorial this afternoon, claiming the situation is "now critical".
INO general secretary Mr Liam Doran said there were 33 people on trolleys in the Mater hospital awaiting in-patient bed.
He said in one case, an elderly patient needing rescuscitation was treated on a stretcher, as no trolleys were available.
At Beaumont hospital, there were 17 patients on trolleys awaiting admission today, one of whom has been waiting since 7 p.m. on Friday evening, the INO claimed.
St James's hospital has 19 patients on trolleys, James Connolly (Blanchardstown) has eight and Tallaght has 15, according to the INO.
Speaking at lunchtime, Mr Doran said nursing staff were simply not in a position to provide the quality of nursing care that is required by these patients and that any care given "cannot be given in a context of dignity and privacy".
He called for all hospital managers in the Dublin area to attend an emergency "summit" with the INO and to undertake immediate measures to alleviate the crisis.
Mr Doran called for the immediate opening of all closed beds in the acute hospitals, the restoration of all community services withdrawn or restricted for budgetary reasons and the immediate spending of all monies available to allow patients to be moved to step-down facilities.
The Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) has insisted that "despite financial constraints" this year, the acute hospitals in its region are providing a higher level of service than they did last year. It has also rejected the INO's claims that it is retaining money that it could have distributed to the hospitals and to community services.