Dublin's Beaumont Hospital is ‘dangerously overcrowded' and should be taken off call immediately, nurses have claimed.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) is calling for the hospital to be taken off call for ‘an extended period', due to serious overcrowding in the Emergency Department (ED).

On Wednesday, there were 39 admitted patients waiting on trolleys and chairs.

Furthermore, the number of patients left waiting on trolleys in the first four months of this year was 26% higher than the number waiting during the same period last year.

This issue has been compounded ‘by the closure of 33 beds in the last five weeks and the continued high level of delayed discharges', which currently stands at more than 90, the INMO said.

The situation has been described as ‘intolerable for patients and staff' by INMO industrial relations officer, Lorraine Monaghan.

"The hospital needs to urgently go off call until such time that the situation is brought under control. The solution will not be found by placing additional beds on corridors and behind doors of wards that are already at full capacity," she commented.

Ms Monaghan said that management needs to reopen the recently closed beds and gain access to additional community beds.

The hospital also needs to ‘pull out all the stops to fill vacant nursing posts in the ED and throughout the hospital to ensure that patients are afforded safe care in a dignified environment during their stay in Beaumont Hospital'.