Nurses have expressed concern about a spike in trolley waiting figures in recent days.

According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO),the number of people left waiting on trolleys in hospitals between July 11 and 15 jumped by 38% when compared with the same Monday to Friday period last year.

The figures show that last week, 1,839 patients were on trolleys in hospitals nationwide compared to 1,336 during the same period in 2015.

Some hospitals did see a decrease. For example, 150 patients were on trolleys in Dublin's Beaumont Hospital during this period last year compared to last week's figure of 130 and Cork University Hospital had 72 people on trolleys last year and 59 this year.

However a number of hospitals saw increases when the two periods are compared, including the Mater in Dublin (41 in 2015 and 101 in 2016), the Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar (96 in 2015 and 117 in 2016) and South Tipperary General Hospital (20 in 2015 and 73 in 2016).

The INMO called for an explanation as to why these figures have suddenly increased. They had fallen during May and June and the organisation insisted that it would ‘simply not allow the situation to slip back to a continuous state of chaos, where unacceptably low standards and overcrowding are accepted as normal'.

It repeated its call for the urgent recruitment of frontline staff. It also called for ‘immediate engagement on finalising initiatives which will expand bed capacity and services'.

"The increase in the number of patients on trolleys waiting for an inpatient bed last week is most disappointing. The welcome reduction in numbers in May and June was unfortunately short lived.

"The inevitable consequence of any delays in recruitment of nurses and other frontline staff, will result in the curtailment of services and a reduction in bed capacity, which will exacerbate pressures on the Emergency Departments," commented INMO deputy general secretary, Dave Hughes.