Nurses express growing frustration with ongoing A&E crisis

The Irish Nurses Organisation has expressed its growing frustration with ongoing overcrowding in accident and emergency departments throughout the country.

The organisation said 338 patients were waiting on trolleys in A&E units at one stage yesterday, around half of them in Dublin alone.

The INO said it had first raised the issue of overcrowding three years ago and was growing increasingly angry with the failure of the Government and the health service authorities to address the matter.

Spokesman Liam Doran said: "We had very bad times during the last quarter of 2004, but 338 is the highest number we've had for a considerable period.

"Regrettably, three years after we initially raised this problem, the situation is as bad as ever and that's a terrible indictment upon health service managers and the Government for failing to recognise the extent of this problem and the suffering that people are having to endure as a result."