A patient is dying every day because of hospital overcrowding, according to the Irish Patients Association.
Latest figures from the INMO, show 449 people are waiting on trolleys nationwide at present with 74 at Cork University and the Mercy University Hospitals
The acute hospitals director with the HSE says the country needs 7,500 more acute beds if more investment isn’t made in community services.
Stephen McMahon from the Irish Patients Association say the situation is at crisis point.
"The experts are saying that approximately one patient a day is dying because of overcrowding, because of pressures on the system and so on.
"We have had reports in the last week or two, and a number of them are in the public domain, that overcrowding is getting to a critical situation.
"There was one case last week when an elderly person fell off their trolley, and split their face."
