The INMO has described the overcrowding at the Mercy University Hospital as "intolerable" and "dangerous".
The nursing union says it is impossible for adequate care to be provided at the facility in those conditions.
35 people are currently being treated on trolleys at the city centre hospital and restricted visiting times are in operation due to a Covid outbreak at the facility.
The union says the fire officer has visited the Mercy recently due to fire exits being blocked because of the overcrowding.
The INMO has been warning that the discharge rates from the Mercy and Cork University Hospitals are too low and are calling for more community beds to be made available to help alleviate the problem.
Speaking to RedFM News Liam Conway of the INMO says this level of overcrowding was entirely predictable:
"One of the key factors here is that it's the post-Bank-Holiday-surge in the hospital. And the overcrowding was entirely predictable as well. The unions would have wrote to the HSE over a number of occasions over the previous bank holidays to ensure that we didn't see these surges - because you can see it in trolley count, as we've seen yesterday, 28 in the Marcy. We've also seen this morning - 35 patients - and the hospital having restricted visiting times because of COVID outbreaks. So these types of surges after a Bank Holiday, they are not new. They happen each time and it's clear that many hospitals are not preparing properly. And unfortunately, you can see that in the case of the Mercer University Hospital, and Cork university Hospital, over the last week".
