Patients attending the Emergency Department at University Hospital Limerick this week have described it as "chaotic" and "jammed".
Record numbers of patients were waiting for a hospital bed on consecutive days this week, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation's daily trolley figures.
One woman, Maria, said her partner was admitted to its Emergency Department with chest pains on Wednesday, when the INMO counted 150 patients without a bed in the hospital - the highest figure at the hospital since the INMO began recording their trolley watch lists in 2006.
Figures from the HSE showed 103 patients on trolleys that day.
Speaking to RTÉ’s This Week programme, Maria described the Emergency Department as "jammed".
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"We arrived at about 9.30am in the morning in A&E and by I think about 2.30pm we got brought to the acute medical unit where it was quite clear, and we didn't know at the time, that it was the day the highest number of people were attending A&E, but the place was absolutely jammed," she said.
"Obviously when you're sick, you bring someone with you so there weren't even enough chairs for patients, never mind their family members who were with them," she added.
Maria said her partner, who is over 6ft tall, was on a trolley located at a wall beside a toilet.
"My partner was allocated a bed eventually, but the trolley was right next to a toilet, so it was like a small wall which just about managed to fit the trolley. If you put your feet out long lengthwise on the bed, you'd actually get people bumping into your feet as they opened the door of the toilet, which of course was already packed with an entire ward full of people," she said.
"The toilet was used every 10-15 minutes. There was no calm, there was no quiet. There was a lot of old people there. A drink was offered very few times ... I just kept looking around at all of the older people and thinking if you were here on your own, you wouldn't get enough fluids. I don't know how the staff cope. There's just too many people to deal with," she said.
Mary Cahalane from the Mid West Hospital Campaign Group said the hospital cannot cater for the population.
"This hospital cannot cater for 400,000 people. One ED is simply not enough, unless they advocate for more model 3 hospitals in the Mid West or reopening of the A&E's that we lost during the reconfiguration," Ms Cahalane said.
She added: "Unless they advocate for that and for proper health service for the people, then the situation is not going to change".
Others that have been in UHL's Emergency Department over the past week described conditions as chaotic.
One man, wearing a dressing gown, who was making his way up to the service station nearby said: "I was on a trolley for seven days, it's just chaos. Absolute chaos."
"They're just moving people all the time ... You'll be moved from one corner to another. Up and down the corridor," he said.
Outside the hospital another woman whose mum was in the Emergency Department and has dementia said the current situation is very upsetting for people.
"It's still quite bad, but I have to say the staff, they are being very good and doing the best they can under the conditions. It's upsetting for people, especially for those who suffer with dementia, because they keep getting moved up and down the corridors. So yeah, it's tough," she said.
In a statement, the HSE said that it recognises the recent pressures experienced by people and staff in a number of hospitals.
It said that every step is being taken to alleviate and improve care for those waiting for admission, particularly older people.
It said new Regional arrangements are in place to ensure all community and hospital services are integrated, and additional improvements in process are being pursued.
