The HSE is facing "a cliff" in the number of public nursing home beds this summer - as they fail to come up to standard - due to a lack of funds.
The Health Service is admitting that the current crisis in emergency departments is caused by delayed discharge of people, mostly elderly, who don't have a nursing home place to go to.
Juliette Gash reports;
The overall number of people waiting on trolleys has dropped slightly since yesterday, but some hospitals have more patients on trolleys today.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation says 584 patients are waiting on wards and trolleys, 415 of whom are on trolleys, yesterday the overall figure was 601.
A number of Dublin hospitals including Connolly Hospital and Tallaght Hospital have more patients on trolleys today than yesterday.
