President of the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IAEM) Professor Conor Deasy has warned that there is a "massive capacity issue" in hospitals, with the Emergency Department at Cork University Hospital operating at over 300% capacity.
Hospital overcrowding has reduced today, according to figures from the Health Service Executive and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.
The INMO's 'Trolley Watch' puts the overcrowding level at 612 patients, a decrease from 654 yesterday.
The HSE's 'Urgent & Emergency Care Report' puts the trolley numbers at 461, down from 491 yesterday.
According to the INMO, the facility worst affected today is University Hospital Limerick with 101 patients waiting, a reduction on yesterday's figure.
It says there are 75 patients waiting for admission to a bed at CUH.
The new HSE data system includes information on the number of patients on trolleys or other inappropriate beds.
It also includes patients in beds not usually used for patients admitted through the emergency department. This is known as surge capacity.
In addition to those in emergency departments, the INMO counts patients placed on wards, or on corridors or chairs, elsewhere in hospitals, waiting for admission to a bed.
Prof Deasy, who is a consultant at CUH, said there were 117 people waiting in the emergency department this morning, with 45 trolleys accommodating people as they await a bed.
He said at times like this when there is an "exponential surge", the hospital is not able to cope with it effectively and safely, adding that patients who were among the most ill have been seen, but others have been waiting since 7pm last night.
Prof Deasy said it is a "dreadful" situation for patients waiting, as he also outlined the difficulties for staff to provide care to all of them.
"These patients deserve to be in a hospital bed, a ward bed and they are being accommodated on the corridors of the wards".
Read more: Why do the HSE and INMO trolley figures differ?
Prof Deasy's comments come as departments across the country continue to experience a high level of presentations this week due to ongoing high illness rates related to winter viruses.
He said there is an issue where it seems people "have become immune" to the level of overcrowding in the country's hospitals, adding that it is costing lives.
Describing how mitigation efforts are being made across hospitals, he said there has been a 33% increase in all emergency department attendances this month compared to this time last year.
"In our over 75-year-olds we are seeing a 40% increase," he said.
He referred to a meeting last winter where Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said "we can't have another winter like last winter."
Prof Deasy described how working last night he met patients who had held off going to the hospital for several days because they had been hearing about how busy the Emergency Departments were.
"What we don't want is patients who really need medical attention missing out on medical attention for fear of long queues and chaotic Emergency Departments."
He said it is not a good reflection where patients are being asked to seek help in other places.
"Help should be available in the right places when they need it."
Patients who have been admitted "are in every corner of the hospital", Laura Durcan, Consultant Rheumatologist at Beaumont Hospital and former Vice President of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association.
"I think that is reflective of what is happening nationally," she said.
"There is no corner in the hospital that isn't at the moment housing an acutely unwell patient that has been admitted from the ED."
She said endoscopies and other regular work in the hospital are being "pushed down the road".
"That is a big concern because that work is going to have to be done and those are other waiting lists that we are not addressing," Dr Durcan added.
Elderly man in ED for 100 hours - SF
Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty said it was "scandalous" that CUH is operating at 300% capacity.
He told the Dáil that an 87-year-old man was left in a hospital emergency department for 100 hours and he accused the Government of abandoning patients and health workers.
"The crisis has been caused by your decisions ... and you are stumbling from one crisis to another."
Responding, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said that investment in health has been unprecedented in the last four years, increasing by more than 50%.
Mr Martin said no patient should be on a trolley for 100 hours and there are issues that are not about funding.
He said there must be reforms in relation to the discharge of patients from hospitals and capacity must be increased.
Additional reporting Mícheál Lehane
