The Health Service Executive has advised GPs in the northeast not to send patients to the A&E unit of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda if at all possible due to severe overcrowding in the hospital's emergency department.
There were up to 20 patients on trolleys in the Co Louth hospital's A&E unit awaiting beds early yesterday, according to figures collected by the Irish Nurses' Organisation.
In an e-mail to GPs in the region, the HSE said: "The emergency department at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital is under severe pressure. We are advising GPs that patients referred to the emergency department will experience very long waits.
"We would ask that GPs referring patients, who need admission to hospital, consider referring them to the Louth County Hospital, Dundalk, where appropriate."
A spokeswoman for the HSE said that the emergency department in Drogheda had been very busy over the last few days.
Meanwhile, the INO said that the numbers of patients having to wait on trolleys in A&E units across the State were gradually rising again.
It said there were 210 patients on trolleys on Monday and 234 on trolleys yesterday.
It said that a breakdown of yesterday's figures showed there were 36 patients on trolleys at Dublin's St Vincent's Hospital, 23 on trolleys at Mayo General, 19 on trolleys at Wexford General, 16 on trolleys in Letterkenny and 15 patients on trolleys at Cork University Hospital.
The HSE, however, claimed that the figure was lower. It said it had counted just 140 patients on trolleys at 8 am yesterday. It added that by 2 pm yesterday the numbers waiting on trolleys at Our Lady of Lourdes was down to 13.