Frustration as ambulances forced to queue for hours outside A&E

Ambulance crews are queuing up at the emergency department of a major hospital and waiting up to two hours before they can unload patients and are released to return to duty.

Paramedics say they are becoming increasingly frustrated by the daily overcrowding at University Hospital Limerick, where up to seven ambulances were backed up on Wednesday as 42 patients waited on trolleys inside.

Figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation showed there were more patients waiting on trolleys at the hospital on Wednesday than at any other hospital in the country.