Overcrowding in hospital Emergency Departments (EDs) has reached an ‘all time high', nurses have claimed.

According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), 563 patients were waiting on trolleys on Monday morning including 50 in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, 41 in St Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin, 39 in St Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny and 34 in Mayo General Hospital.

The organisation has again called for the cancellation of all elective (routine) admissions to the country's hospitals for a minimum of 14 days in an attempt to tackle the problem.

It said that following extensive contact with ED staff over the weekend, it found a number of cases of patient care being compromised as a result of overcrowding, including palliative care patients being left on trolleys for at least four days and elderly, frail patients being left on trolleys ‘with no dignity or privacy'.

The INMO is also calling for the ‘immediate opening' of additional/acute continuing care beds, the emergency recruitment of additional nursing staff and an increase in the number of home care packages and community nurses, which would allow more patients to remain at home.

INMO general secretary, Liam Doran, described the number of patients currently waiting on trolleys as ‘truly shocking'.

"Emergency department overcrowding was declared a national emergency when we had just under 500 people on trolleys in 2006. We now have 563 patients on trolleys in the first working week of the New Year, with the situation worsening on a daily basis. This is a national emergency. This is a health service crisis which must be addressed," he insisted.

Mr Doran called for ‘radical action', adding that this ‘must not be limited by resources'.