Galway Bay fm newsroom - The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation says overcrowding at hospitals in the west and northwest - including UHG - is 'out of control'.
It's as a record breaking 58 people are on trolleys at UHG today awaiting admission - the highest figure on record.
It's been a black day for the Irish hospital system - with almost 600 people nationwide waiting for a bed.
General Secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha says the situation for patients is now beyond 'inhumane' and the numbers are continuing to rise steadily.
She says staff are also doing their best to cope under extreme pressure, working under impossible and unsafe conditions.
She's been speaking to our reporter David Nevin in the past hour.
She believes it's time for the HSE to 'pull out all the stops' and starting treating it like the national crisis that it is:
