The INMO has called on the Health Service Executive to take urgent action as its figures showed that 747 admitted patients, including 32 children, were waiting for a hospital bed this morning.
Among the hospitals worst affected are University Hospital Limerick with 109 patients waiting for a bed, along with 57 at Letterkenny University Hospital, 54 at Sligo University Hospital, and 50 at St James's Hospital in Dublin.
Twelve children at the National Children's Hospital in Tallaght are waiting for a bed, with ten at CHI Temple Street and nine at CHI Crumlin, according to the INMO's TrolleyWatch figures.
In a statement, Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha described the figures as "truly shocking" and said they should be a "wake-up call to the Health Service Executive, the Government and individual hospital groups".
She said extraordinary steps must be taken to ensure that the same record breaking trolley numbers seen at the beginning of this year are not replicated.
Ms Ní Sheaghdha said the INMO is seeking urgent engagement with HSE Chief Executive Bernard Gloster and Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly.
"The HSE must take action in the form of accelerating the use of private hospital beds, the immediate cancellation of all non-urgent elective activity and the introduction of heightened infection control measures in all hospitals," she said.
Speaking later to RTÉ's News at One, she said the HSE needed to "set aside" its recruitment freeze and said "the restriction on recruitment makes absolutely no sense".
Ms Ní Sheaghdha also said it is "really inappropriate" having children in spaces such as in emergency departments of adult hospitals.
She added that the number of people on trolley count does not show the human suffering endured by patients and staff.
