A 70-year-old woman has told of her distressing experience attending Cork University Hospital during the current overcrowding crisis.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One programme, Patricia McCarthy from Blarney, Co Cork, said she spent 57 hours sitting on a chair at CUH while being treated.
"It's called a hub, they're not called trolleys anymore. It's a new word now for a trolley," she said.
"I sat in that hub for 57 hours with my coat for a pillow with an oxygen bottle, intravenous drips hanging from me for 57 hours."
Ms McCarthy said she went to the hospital early on New Year's Day with a suspected clot in her lungs and low oxygen levels. She got a hospital bed last night.
She said she saw other patients in distress during the time she spent waiting.
"I had a mother lie at my feet in pain, crying in pain, couldn't sit in her hub and her children ringing her saying 'Mammy we love you'."
She said there was no dignity for patients, with 40 to 50 people going without a shower for days.
"I saw a man go for an operation, sitting waiting at 4.30am in the morning. He went up in the clothes he came into the hospital in," she said.
"Where did he get prepped for that operation?"
Ms McCarthy also said she was "appalled" at the staff working conditions. She said local politicians in Cork know about the situation at the hospital.
"We have three ministers in my city, I won't give them the title of minister. They know what's going on."
She said she wants an independent inspection of the hub: "I want an independent person to come. I want HIQA to inspect that. There's 40 to 50 hubs."
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HSE Chief Executive Stephen Mulvany has said it was "unacceptable" that patients seeking a bed were waiting for more than 50 hours.
There were 639 patients in emergency departments or on wards waiting for a hospital bed this morning, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.
That figure is down by 199 patients compared with yesterday's number, which was the second highest ever recorded.
