Patients on trolleys along a corridor of Dublin's Tallaght hospital have named the area "the Mary Harney suite".
As overcrowding at the hospital's A&E unit reached unprecedented levels yesterday with 75 patients waiting for beds, one woman who has been on a trolley for the past five days at the hospital said the place was "like a war zone".
The woman, who did not wish to be identified, said she had been rushed to the hospital with a suspected heart attack five days ago and has been on a trolley since and has been diagnosed with a clot in her lung.
"Not even a bed screen is put around the bed when you get an injection. You can't have a private consultation with a doctor," she said.
"You can't sleep because it's so busy. They are just in and out all the time. There are only two toilets for all of us and yesterday our shower was blocked. We call it the Mary Harney suite," she added.
"Nobody is complaining about the staff. They are rushed off their feet, but the conditions are ridiculous in this day and age.
"It's like a war zone. I'd heard about the conditions in A&E but never appreciated it until I came in here myself."
Another patient, Edel (27) from Citywest, said she had also been on a trolley for five days. She too has clots. "This is my fourth time in this hospital in the last 1½ years and I've never got a bed. I've always been on a trolley. On no occasion have I been put in a ward," she said.
"The trolleys are horrible. I'm 5ft 11in and my feet stick out at the end. You just can't sleep," she added. "I have to have stomach injections twice a day in front of everybody".
The Irish Nurses' Organisation said there were 63 patients on trolleys in the A&E department and another 12 on trolleys in the day ward - a total of 75 patients waiting for a bed - early yesterday. It said a number of the patients have spent more than eight days on trolleys.
The hospital, in a statement, appealed to the public to use the A&E department only for emergencies. It said the department was exceptionally busy and patients presenting would experience severe delays.
INO deputy general secretary Dave Hughes described the level of overcrowding in the hospital's A&E unit as appalling. He said the INO had suspicions the hospital was keeping beds free for patients due to be admitted for elective surgery, even though people were "out the door on trolleys". This should not happen, he said.
"You would have to question if beds are managed on a hospital-wide basis or on a department by department-wide basis," he added.
The hospital rejected his accusation. A spokeswoman said all elective admissions were cancelled yesterday and the hospital had also been full over the weekend. "No beds were kept for elective patients," she said.
She added that the number of patients on trolleys was down to 27 last evening and the hospital was making every effort to ease the problem. It is due to put prefabs in place shortly to ease overcrowding.
The Sinn Féin TD for the area Seán Crowe last night called on the Ms Harney to visit Tallaght A&E and explain to staff and patients why there were nearly three times more patients on trolleys there than any other hospital in the State. He claimed the A&E crisis in the hospital had got worse since she became Minister for Health.
The INO claimed there were 392 patients on trolleys across the State yesterday. Ms Harney claims progress is being made on easing the problem.