Nurses are calling for an immediate meeting of the Emergency Department (ED) Taskforce after the number of patients waiting on trolleys in hospitals nationwide broke the 600 barrier on Tuesday.

According to figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), a total of 601 patients were waiting on trolleys on January 6, including 45 in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, 41 in University Hospital Limerick and Dublin's Beaumont Hospital, and 36 in Mayo General Hospital.

The INMO has called for the immediate opening of all additional acute and non-acute beds, the immediate recruitment of additional nursing staff and more resources to fund homecare packages and community nursing interventions.

This call has been backed up by ALONE, the charity that provides support to older people in need. It wants to see more housing with supports, more nursing home beds and more step-down facilities in the community. This would free up acute hospital beds and provide appropriate care to older people, it insisted.

Figures from the HSE show that around 800 patients nationwide are waiting to be discharged from acute hospitals. 

ALONE also said that it was not surprised by the current crisis given Ireland's ageing population.

"The age demographic of Ireland is skewing towards an ageing population with 400 people turning 65 years of age each week. That is up to 20,000 people turning 65 years of age each year. Our current health system is not equipped to deal with this, nor is it committed to addressing the current crisis which without intervention will only continue to get worse," commented its chief executive, Sean Moynihan.

He pointed out that there has been a major cut in home help hours over the last three years and more than 1,100 older people are currently on the Fair Deal waiting list - an increase of almost 200% since February 2014. The Fair Deal scheme provides financial support for nursing home accommodation.

The charity carried out a cost comparison of the various options when it comes to care of older people and found that the cost of an acute hospital bed is up to €900 per day and the cost of a nursing home bed is up to €200 per day. However the cost of home help three times a day is up to €70 per day, while the cost of ALONE housing with supports is just €34 a day.

"This comparison demonstrates that there is an urgent need to properly resource and plan for the housing and care options for our older people. Everything is linked and we need to look at this crisis in a broader context and come up with an integrated solution that will make sense to the individual and the economy," Mr Moynihan added.

Meanwhile GPs have warned that GP surgeries may be overwhelmed with extra patients if this issue is not resolved.

"We are very concerned now that patients will feel they would be better off going to a GP instead of going to an ED. GPs are not able to provide an emergency service and could quickly become overwhelmed if the current crisis continues," commented Dr Ray Walley, chairman of the Irish Medical Organisation's GP Committee.

He added that while GPs will do as much as they can, they ‘cannot be expected to simply replace ED services'.

The Irish Association of Emergency Medicine (IAEM) has already warned that patients ‘will die and others will have much worse medical outcomes than they should have' if the overcrowding crisis is not tackled (see more here).

Health Minister, Leo Varadkar, who had been out of the country, is expected to make a statement on the crisis today.