A patient is dying every day because of hospital overcrowding, according to the Irish Patients Association.
Latest figures from the INMO, show 460 people are waiting on trolleys nationwide at present.
There are 78 patients without beds in University Hospital Limerick, which serves North Tipp, Limerick and Clare, while there are 8 in the Tipperary University Hospital in Clonmel.
The acute hospitals director with the HSE says the country needs 7,500 more acute beds if more investment isn’t made in community services.
Stephen McMahon from the Irish Patients Association say the situation is at crisis point.
“The experts are saying that approximately one patient a day is dying because of overcrowding, because of the pressures on the system and so on.
“We have had reports in the last week or two and a number of them have been in the public domain, where the overcrowding in some hospitals is getting to a critical situation.
“There was one case where an elderly person fell off a trolley and split their face.”
