TROLLEY WATCH: Hundreds of patients wait for beds at overcrowded Irish hospitals

Hundreds of patients are waiting for beds at overcrowded hospitals across Ireland this morning. 

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) released figures showing 331 admitted patients are waiting on trolleys, with 259 in the emergency department and 72 in wards elsewhere in the hospital. 

According to the data, University Hospital Limerick is the worst affected today with 52 patients waiting., followed by 45 in Letterkenny University Hospital and 32 in Cork University Hospital (CUH). 

The INMO recently highlighted the capacity crisis at hospitals in Cork, with Industrial Relations Officer for CUH, Liam Conway, calling the situation "very dangerous". 

Twenty three people are waiting at Sligo University Hospital, with 16 at Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore and 15 at Portiuncula Hospital. 

Just nine hospitals nationwide are unaffected by the trolley crisis this morning, including in Waterford, Navan, Ennis, as well as three in Dublin, two in Tipperary and one in Cork. 

A total of 1,741 patients waited on trolleys in just the past week, with the number steadily rising from the middle of last week, from 273 to 288 to 316 to today's 331. 

Less than half - 141 people - of today's figure were waiting on trolleys at approximately the same time last year.