The number of patients on trolleys at a Dublin hospital reached record levels yesterday. At one point there were 52 patients in the A&E unit at Beaumont Hospital waiting for beds.
As a result at least three ambulances were delayed outside the hospital for a time.
The hospital confirmed it cancelled all elective inpatient and day case admissions in all specialities in an attempt to alleviate the situation.
"At noon the number of patients awaiting admission to the hospital from the emergency department, including 10 in its new admissions lounge, was 45. At one point earlier in the morning it was 52 - the highest it has ever been," a hospital spokesman said.
The Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny raised the matter in the Dáil and challenged Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to go and see the overcrowding for himself. Mr Kenny visited the A&E unit last night. Afterwards he said the reality on the ground in Beaumont was massively different to the picture painted in the Dáil by Mr Ahern, who said the situation in A&E units was improving.
The Government, he said, had failed Beaumont Hospital by failing to provide the extra facilities and long-stay beds it required to allow its medical staff do their work as they wanted to.
Dr Aidan Gleeson, an A&E consultant at the hospital, said a major reason why the emergency department was clogged up was because 120 beds in the hospital were occupied by patients who no longer needed acute hospital care. They are awaiting long-stay care elsewhere.
"It's the highest number I've known since I came to the hospital seven years ago," he said.
The hospital, he said, has a total of 630 beds but practically one in five of them was occupied by a patient who shouldn't be in a hospital bed. "Consultants could do ward rounds morning, noon and night but it won't free up those beds," he said.
Dr Gleeson said there had been a concerted effort in the hospital to improve throughput of patients but these were "stymied" by the fact that 120 of their beds were functioning like nursing home beds.
The Irish Nurses Organisation put the overall number of patients on trolleys at hospitals across the State early yesterday at 392.
In a statement Beaumont asked people not to attend its emergency department unless their visit was absolutely essential. The number of long-stay patients in the hospital had increased to an unprecedented level, it said.
"Beaumont now has over 100 patients waiting for a bed to become available in a more appropriate post-acute setting . . . the Health Service Executive had been trying to obtain appropriate beds for these patients in north Dublin but with little success to date. Later this year a new 100-bed unit is to be developed at St Joseph's Hospital in Raheny, which is under the management of Beaumont Hospital. In the meantime, however, the hospital is concerned that it may take weeks, if not months, before suitable beds become available," it added.
The HSE stressed that numbers waiting and waiting times in emergency departments have improved. But it accepted delayed discharges were an issue for Beaumont and said the HSE was working on this and had secured bed places from the private hospital sector which will become available this week. "The Beaumont Convalescent Home is currently being refurbished and will be available in the next five weeks to take 36 patients. In addition, we expect 25 places to become available in the private nursing home sector during the same period," it said.
It said by yesterday afternoon the number on trolleys nationwide stood at 219. Last night the number waiting for beds in Beaumont's A&E was down to 30.