The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has called on the Health Service Executive to come to tomorrow's Emergency Department Taskforce meeting with new solutions to reduce overcrowding in hospitals.
The call comes on World Patient Safety day today.
The INMO said that since the beginning of September over 5,200 patients, including 100 children, have been without a bed in Irish hospitals.
Last Friday morning, the INMO's Trolley Watch stated that 366 admitted patients were waiting for beds.
This was broken down into 252 patients waiting in the emergency department, while 114 were in wards elsewhere in hospitals.
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said; "We know that overcrowding of this nature has significant impacts on the long-term health outcomes of any patient that spends more than six hours on a trolley.
"At tomorrow's meeting of the Emergency Department Taskforce, the HSE and individual hospital groups must bring something new to the table to ensure that patient safety is enhanced over the coming months.
"Our members are reporting that significant overcrowding coupled with unmet recruitment and retention targets are making it impossible to provide safe care to those who need it most.
She added that "year-on-year we are having the same conversations about the very real impact hospital overcrowding is having on patient safety. Senior decision-makers must prioritise the de-escalation of overcrowded areas and remove these very real barriers to providing safe care to patients in our hospitals."
