There's been a call for the appointment of a 'staff care tsar' in the Health Service.
It comes as nursing unions highlight the problems of overcrowding in Emergency Departments and difficulties in attracting and retaining workers.
There are 87 patients being treated on trolleys at Cork University, the Mercy and Bantry General Hospitals this afternoon according to the INMO's trolley watch.
59 of those patients are at CUH, which is the second most overcrowded hospital in the country.
In a statement issued this lunchtime, the INMO says over 100,000 patients have gone without a bed in Irish hospitals so far in 2022 with over 10,000 of those patients at Cork University Hospital.
This is the earliest that this high number of admitted patients has ever been recorded.
The Irish Nurse and Midwives Organisation has identifed CUH as among five of the worst hit hospitals in the country for overcrowding.
Consultant in Emergency Medicine in Cork Dr. Chris Luke says there needs to be a new approach to HR for medical staff:
"For example, the patients out there can't get any warm food at night and here isn't a clean bed for them. They go from one hospital a considerable distance to another, and no one knows anything about them in terms of the payroll, the salary, the agency numbering, or they don't even know what their roster is for the first week or two."
