Efforts are underway to discharge as many patients as possible from hospitals before Christmas
There are fears for patient safety if the levels of overcrowding seen last winter are repeated.
On one particular day last January, 931 patients were on trolleys in emergency departments or on wards.
This year has been a record year for hospital overcrowding with Cork University Hospital the second most overcrowded this year
Almost 12,500 patients were on trolleys during the year at CUH.
The HSE's Chief Clinical Officer, Dr. Colm Henry, says they want to take the pressure away from emergency departments
"Emergency Services and primary care are always staffed over Christmas and bank holiday periods and that remains the case this year, what we're doing as I said, in order to ensure there's a greater flow of people through hospital and to avoid admission in the first place, and to expedite the discharges is to insure that there is a senior decision maker presents, seven days out of seven, so that we can make those decisions"
