The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation is to begin a period of consultation on a campaign of industrial action over hospital overcrowding.
The INMO said it would commence a series of information and consultation meetings with members over the next month.
It comes after the worst week on record for hospital overcrowding, with the HSE's interim Chief Executive saying this morning that he could not say for certain that "it won't get worse before it gets better".
The INMO said that it was seeking safe staffing levels that were underpinned with legislation and clinical facilitation in all hospitals to ensure a safe skills mix.
"What has transpired this week in our hospitals was totally avoidable," said INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha.
"For too long nurses and midwives have been warning that we were going to see an overcrowding blackspot in January unless serious and meaningful action was taken," she added.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said that capacity is being expanded in the healthcare service at a level that has "never before been seen".
Speaking on RTÉ's Six One News programme, Mr Donnelly said that the "the ability to predict" the pressure in hospitals this winter "does not mean that you can in six months or even in three years deal with legacy capacity deficits".
"We know there hasn't been sufficient capacity in the Irish healthcare system for a very long time.
"So what are we doing? We are expanding capacity in the public service at a level that has never before been seen," he added.
Responding to an RTÉ Six One clip showing previous ministerial pledges on hospital overcrowding, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly says there hasn't been enough capacity in the health service for a long time, and there is a 'perfect storm' this year | https://t.co/Gqi775EbQ4 pic.twitter.com/M77iyKpIKA
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) January 6, 2023
"So over the last three years, we've added more beds, more critical care, more staff than ever before.
"Now is it enough? It's not but let's acknowledge that there's been a bigger expansion in the last three years than ever before and we’re going to continue with that expansion."
INMO President Karen McGowan has said that it is "impossible" to provide safe care to patients in overcrowded settings along with the threat of transmissible viruses in hospitals.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, Ms McGowan, who is also an advanced nurse practitioner at Beaumont Hospital, said that it was "exceptionally the worst time" they have been through and nurses and midwifes are traumatised by what they are witnessing on a daily basis.
She added their trauma pales in comparison to what patients are enduring.
"The footage of the EDs around the country must be very upsetting and disturbing but unfortunately these are our places of work and this is what we are enduring every day," Ms McGowan said.
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'Soul-destroying'
Meanwhile, a nurse working in the emergency department of Letterkenny University Hospital has said it is inhumane and unacceptable the way people are being treated because of overcrowding.
Speaking on the same programme, Sarah Meagher said: "You are coming on to shift, know you are going to face anything up to 30 admitted patients and any additional patients that have been waiting to be seen.
"So it is not unusual at the moment to walk into our department to find 40 or 50 patients. We only have 12 cubicles."
She said staff are facing "justifiably upset and angry patients and relatives" at the conditions they are being treated in.
"Unfortunately we are bearing the brunt of that because we are the faces that we see," and they have to mentally prepare for that anger and upset.
Ms Meagher described the current situation as "soul-destroying", adding that she did not sign up to nursing to be in crisis management but to provide the best level of care for patients.
She said nurses and midwives are leaving the sector in numbers she has never seen before.
