There are 651 admitted patients waiting for a hospital bed in Irish hospitals today, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), with University Hospital Limerick (UHL) the worst affected.
It said there were 116 patients waiting at UHL. There are 56 patients in the hospital's emergency department, and a further 60 on hospital wards.
On Monday, the daily figure was 104, and on 9 March it was 100.
The hospital has had to cancel all but time-critical elective surgery because of high numbers of presentations at the hospital's emergency department, including sick children and frail older citizens, all of whom have complex medical needs.
The group said teams remain very busy at the hospital and that presentations of sick patients continued overnight with another 252 patients turning up at the emergency department between 8am and 8pm yesterday.
'Productive' meeting between HSE and INMO
According to the INMO's TrolleyWatch figures there were 495 patients waiting in emergency departments, with 156 on wards in hospitals around the country today.
Other hospitals affected include Cork University Hospital where there are 74 patients waiting, University Hospital Galway with 52 and Tallaght University Hospital with 47.
There were 27 admitted patients waiting for a bed at the country's three children’s hospitals - Crumlin, Tallaght and Temple Street.
This evening, the CEO of the HSE Bernard Gloster met with the INMO to discuss the challenges in emergency departments.
In a statement the HSE said that the meeting was "very productive and focused". It said that it outlined to the INMO "existing and planned measures" to try and address long waiting times in hospitals.
Earlier, HSE Chief Operations Officer Damien McCallion said there continues to be increased year-on-year attendances to emergency departments as well as ongoing respiratory illnesses.
Speaking on RTÉ's News At One, he said: "The other factor at the moment is that we are bringing in - what we call our scheduled care - which is bringing patients in for procedures which generally in January and even February to a lesser extent is reduced."
He said as more people are being brought in, they are seeing some tension in hospitals between emergency pressures and patients who are being brought in for procedures.
He said the focus this week is trying to continue to bring patients in, in order to address waiting list challenges and striking that balance as they continue to experience on EDs in terms of attendances.
