More than 8,000 patients were on trolleys in September
A record number of 8,101 patients were on trolleys in the past month, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.
This represents a 7% increase from last year, and a 132% increase from ten years ago.
The figures also mean 73,566 patients were on trollies in the first nine months of the year.
The INMO said that this is a 94% increase against 2007, at which point overcrowding was declared a national emergency.
According to the INMO, University Hospital Limerick and Cork University Hospital have the greatest levels of overcrowding.
The INMO also said that while the "HSE has committed to employ an additional 123 nurses" to deal with admitted patients, only 17 of these posts have been filled.
INMO General Secretary Liam Doran said urgent talks are required.
“This record level of overcrowding, as detailed in the latest trolley/ward watch figures, when combined with the abject failure of the HSE to ensure safe staffing, in these overcrowded departments, must be recognised as a deepening crisis requiring immediate attention by a number of agencies," he said.
