A number of surgeons working in the northeast have appealed to their local Health Service Executive (HSE) to put Monaghan General Hospital back on call for surgical emergencies.
Their appeal was made in a letter to the HSE in which it was stressed that the move would help take pressure off Cavan General Hospital.
The letter, signed by five surgeons working at Cavan hospital, said there had been an "unprecedented number" of patients on trolleys in the A&E unit of Cavan hospital recently.
On one occasion there were 30 patients on trolleys.
Last night a spokeswoman for the HSE North East Area said it would be responding directly to the surgeons before making a public statement on their request.
A steering group set up by the former North Eastern Health Board to look at the establishment of a joint department of surgery between both Monaghan and Cavan hospitals had recommended in December 2004 that only "selective" elective, or non-urgent, surgery should be carried out at Monaghan.
It said patients in need of emergency surgery should be transferred to other hospitals in the region.
The fact that the majority of surgeons in the new joint department of surgery between both hospitals have agreed that Monaghan hospital should be brought back on call for acute surgical emergencies has been welcomed by the Monaghan Hospital Community Alliance.
The alliance has been campaigning for the restoration of several services to the hospital.
Peadar McMahon, the alliance's spokesman, said: "Surely the HSE, the Department of Health and the Minister for Health must listen to the clinicians, who are working at the coalface and know what they are talking about."
He added: "We have maintained that it is a scandal that Monaghan people should have to sit on chairs and lie on trolleys in other hospitals, when they could receive treatment in their own local hospital.
"Of course international research shows that hospitals like Monaghan can deliver safe, economic and quality care to over 85 per cent of patients who present at A&E. What madness prevents this happening?"