The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation are raising concern that patients on trolleys at Cork University Hospital's Emergency Department are being moved to already full wards.
The union say the recent instruction from management at the hospital is putting further strain on staff and is an added risk for patients.
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha has described the level of overcrowding in the country's energency departments as "out of control" and has called on HSE management to meet ahead of the Bank Holiday Weekend to discuss measures such as the lack of hospital and community beds.
Staff shortages are also significant issues at both CUH and the Mercy, according to the INMO in Cork.
Speaking to RedFM News, Colm Porter from the INMO says staff morale is very low.
"There's a newly developing, worrying practice in CUH where they are moving trolleys into wards.
"So we have issues where wards area already at 100% capacity, and more trolleys are being placed in there, and they're being cared for by nursing staff that are already understaffed in many cases.
"That's placing a significant amount of risk on nurses, and on midwives in maternity settings, she because of all that morale of staff is pretty low at the minute."
