Over 40 patients were left waiting on trolleys in one of the country's busiest Emergency Departments (EDs) on Thursday evening, with nearly half of these patients over the age of 75, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has said.

According to the INMO, a total of 41 patients were on trolleys on the evening of October 22 in Dublin's Beaumont Hospital, with 18 of these over the age of 75. Some of these patients had already spent ‘days on trolleys and chairs in frantic, bright and noisy conditions waiting for a bed to become available'.

The organisation has called for the hospital to be taken off call ‘for an extended period in order to bring the situation back under control'. It was forced to seek ‘off-call assistance' from Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda in an attempt to relieve pressure on the department.

It noted that the ED is short of two nurses and it is currently ‘impossible' to provide safe care to patients.

"It is unacceptable that in 2015 patients are subjected to such degrading, inhumane conditions when they are at their most vulnerable. This situation has continued to worsen with overcrowding levels up by 40% in the first nine months of 2015 compared to the same period last year," commented INMO industrial relations officer, Lorraine Monaghan.

She said that staff are constantly faced with ‘intolerable workloads'.

"The situation is exacerbated by a shortage of nursing staff as the hospital cannot recruit/retain the numbers required. These totally unacceptable and stressful conditions prevent the nursing staff from providing safe care and cannot be allowed to continue," Ms Monaghan added.