Beaumont Hospital in Dublin has confirmed proposals to place 16 extra beds on wards to cope with overcrowding in the Accident & Emergency Department this winter.
The plan would be activated if the number of patients in A&E awaiting beds reached 25 or more and there was no prospect of discharging patients to relieve overcrowding.
One extra bed would be placed in each of 16 wards identified by management.
However, a special conference of the Irish Nurses' Organisation has voted to resist any moves by hospitals to put extra beds in wards.
The INO President, Madeline Spiers, described as foolish the idea that extra beds could be placed on already overcrowded and understaffed wards.
Ms Spiers said that nurses had been struggling for years with overcrowding. She said the ten-point plan for A&E by the Tánaiste and Minister for Health, Mary Harney, had failed and that the health service was facing into a very difficult winter period.
Delegates said they could not wait for two more years before the A&E situation improved.
There have been calls at the conference for closed beds to be opened and the staff employment ceiling to be lifted.
The 300 delegates have voted for a national campaign on the A&E crisis.
