At Letterkenny University Hospital there's a steady stream of people moving in and out of the Emergency Department.
People are already frazzled when they turn up here, concerned for elderly relatives or in considerable pain.
The hospital had 56 people waiting to be admitted today, many of them being treated in corridors and side wards.
Speaking to RTÉ News, one woman said her mother had waited outside the ED in an ambulance for ten hours before making it inside.
She needs a high dependency bed but there was none available, so for now she's being nursed by ED staff in a side ward.
To get from that ward to her car, the woman said she'd had to navigate a packed emergency department which necessitated nurses moving patients around to create a pathway.
Another man, a farmer, had been waiting seven hours for an x-ray on his ribs, which he thinks he broke several weeks ago.
Now in significant pain, he was sitting in his car, the seat reclined, because he was so uncomfortable on the chairs in the waiting area.
His wife was keeping his place inside.
His daughter was said that if he was not seen soon, she would be forced to drive him to Belfast for treatment there.
Everyone who spoke at the hospital agreed on one thing.
The long delays are not the responsibility of the overworked nurses and doctors, for whom they had nothing but the highest of praise.
In a statement, the Saolta Hospital Group said that all available beds were in use at Letterkenny, and that "every effort is being made to discharge patients who are ready to go home so that beds will become available for patients who need to be admitted, at the earliest opportunity".
It said the hospital was committed to treating everyone who comes to the Emergency Department.
People who are seriously injured or ill are assessed and treated as a priority, it said, adding that those who do not require urgent care will be waiting longer.
"The hospital understands that these delays are very difficult for patients and their families and apologise for the inconvenience and distress these delays cause. If your health problem is not an emergency you should in the first instance contact your GP during normal surgery hours or the GP out of hours service."
Letterkenny is one of many hospitals today attempting to cope with levels of overcrowding in Irish hospitals that are at an all-time high.
A record 931 admitted patients were waiting for a hospital bed this morning, according to figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.
It has said the situation requires "immediate and serious intervention from the Government".
The hospital worst affected was University Hospital Limerick, with 97 patients waiting.
Other hospitals badly affected are University Hospital Cork with 74 patients waiting, St Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin with 56 patients, and University Hospital Galway with 52.
