Nurses and midwives at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda are to begin industrial action next week, in response to severe and ongoing overcrowding in the Emergency Department (ED).

According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), current conditions in the ED are ‘unsafe and unacceptable' and the HSE and Department of Health have not taken any action to improve the situation.

Trolley/Ward Watch figures for the hospital show that the number of patients left waiting on trolleys while they waited to be admitted to hospital was 243% higher in October 2014 when compared to October 2013.

Furthermore, people in their 80s and 90s ‘have spent three to four days, head to toe, on trolleys on corridors with no privacy and no dignity'.

The INMO insisted that its members - 90% of whom have voted in favour of industrial action - do not want to have to resort to this, ‘but feel they have been left with no alternative'.

"INMO members have highlighted the crisis to management, HIQA, the Health and Safety Authority and politicians with no improvement. Members have already staged a lunchtime protest in August of this year but the problems not only persist, but are getting worse," commented INMO industrial relations officer, Tony Fitzpatrick.

The nurses and midwives will hold a lunchtime protest on Wednesday, November 19, from 1-2pm. This will be followed by industrial action in the form of an indefinite work to rule. During this time, while all essential care required by patients will continue to be provided, non-essential/administrative work will not be carried out by nursing staff.

If no concrete initiatives are announced by management to deal with the issue, a two-hour work stoppage will take place on November 26.

"The INMO is calling on the Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, and the HSE to end the inhumane treatment of patients within this overcrowded department. Some €25 million was allocated in the budget for 2015 to tackle the overcrowding issue, but this money needs to be used now to open some of these beds as we head into the harsh winter period when traditionally the numbers on trolleys increase," Mr Fitzpatrick said.

The INMO is due to meet with hospital management on Tuesday (November 11) to discuss the crisis.