The HSE has said there is an entire system response under way to deal with what is a current "patient safety risk" in relation to the numbers attending emergency departments, and waiting on trolleys.
It also acknowledged there have been significant delays in assessment of patients by Emergency Department doctors.
Speaking during a briefing this afternoon, HSE Chief Executive Stephen Mulvany said there would be clinical decision makers on site and weekends in the short-term.
He said measures like that were not sustainable, but were necessary at this stage and were being done on a patient safety basis.
He said the practice of asking staff to work weekends during a period of pressure caused by staff being out may seem paradoxical, but was necessary to level the workload across the week.
Mr Mulvany said that it was not for financial reasons that consultants were being asked to work over weekends, adding the issue was patient safety and that consultants would respond, and they had been mandated to respond to the situation in front of them.
He said there was a structured overtime payment in place and that if staff wanted to replace that with taking time off in lieu, this was a local issue.
Mr Mulvany urged people to get vaccinations for Covid-19 and for flu, adding that it was not too late. He also urged people who were unwell to stay at home.
He urged those who are concerned as to their health. that they should contact their GP or one of the HSE's 14 local injuries units.
However, he also added that if people are concerned someone is critically unwell, they should always dial 999, but said doctors had to treat the sickest people first.
Read more:
'57 hours with coat for a pillow and an oxygen bottle'
Last year there were 27,000 patients who waited more than 24 hours to receive care in hospitals, according to the HSE.
Of this number, a total of 1,887 patients breached the 24-hour waiting period in the last week of the year alone.
The average wait in emergency departments is currently 8.3 hours, which rises to 13.8 hours for patients who are admitted.
HSE Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry said that the situation in hospitals is "very distressing" for the patients involved and their families, and that healthcare staff are also struggling with the workload.
Speaking on RTÉ's Six One, Dr Henry said that more hospital beds are needed.
"Let me be clear, we do need more hospital beds. We've added almost 1,000 beds since the beginning of the pandemic and about 55 critical care beds, but we need more.
"We need more because of the needs of our population. Our population is thankfully growing older, not always healthily and not always free of illness, particularly of chronic disease."
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Patients to be brought to Ennis in bid to ease Limerick overcrowding
From next week ambulances in the midwest of the country will be permitted to bring patients directly to Ennis Hospital in Co Clare, instead of having to transport them directly to University Hospital Limerick (UHL).
In a memo sent to staff in the region today, seen by RTÉ News, it says that from 8am on Monday "112/999 patients can be transported directly to the Medical Assessment Unit (MAU) in Ennis Hospital".
It is understood the move is part of plans to ease overcrowding at the emergency department in UHL.
However, this can only be done once the patient meets "agreed clinical criteria" and they have "been accepted by the MAU Physician in Ennis".
Ambulance paramedics will have the option of bringing patients to Ennis instead of Limerick between 8am and 6pm from Monday to Friday.
Hospital overcrowding eased further today, with 639 patients in emergency departments or on wards waiting for admission to a bed, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.
The figures are down 199 patients compared with yesterday's number, which was the second highest ever recorded.
The INMO figures are higher and differ to the HSE TrolleyGar figures, as the union also counts patients on wards waiting for admission to a bed.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
It says the hospitals worst affected are Cork University Hospital with 56 patients waiting, Letterkenny with 51, and Galway and Limerick each with 49 patients waiting.
Figures from the HSE put the level of overcrowding in hospitals at 469, including the children's hospitals, which have 13 patients waiting.
The figures taken at 8am are over 83% higher than this day last year.
The HSE numbers show that seven patients have been waiting over 24 hours at St James's Hospital in Dublin, while 14 patients have been waiting over 24 hours at Tallaght Hospital in Dublin.
Letterkenny has six patients waiting over 24 hours, Galway has 11 patients waiting over 24 hours and Cork has 12 patients waiting more than 24 hours.
Earlier this week, the INMO said a record 931 patients were waiting for a hospital bed across the country.
Separately, the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in hospital today is 657, according to the latest figures.
That's 29 fewer than yesterday. Of those, 34 are in intensive care, up seven from yesterday.
GPs facing burnout
The medical director of SouthDoc, the out of hours and overnight emergency GP service covering the Cork and Kerry region, has said the service attended to the needs of 13,500 patients over a ten-day period during the Christmas holidays.
Dr Gary Stack told RTÉ News that of those 13,500 people, only 900 went on to A&E following consultation.
People in the Cork/Kerry region have been urged to contact SouthDoc for out of hours emergency care if possible, but Dr Stack warned today that GPs in the region are facing burnout between seeing patients during the day in their practice and during out-of-hours, with many local GPs covering both services during the Christmas period.
He said he does not see how GPs can further assist in alleviating the overcrowding in emergency departments, given the rate at which they themselves have been operating over the past few weeks.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
No additional beds in northwest in three years
The Chief Executive the Saolta Hospital Group, which includes six hospitals in the northwest and west, has said the group has not received any additional beds in the last three years.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, said if additional beds had come on stream it would improve the situation currently.
He said that implementing Sláintecare was the direction hospitals needed to go going forward so that more care can be provided in the community.
He also said he agreed with Minister Donnelly that those in charge of hospital services, such as consultants, should arrange the hospital to provide seven-day services rather than just Monday to Friday in the month of January.
Additional reporting by Fergal Bowers, Marian O'Flaherty, Aengus Cox
