An elderly patient has spent five days on a trolley at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.

It comes as the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) say up to 40 patients were waiting in the emergency department for treatment, as staff are struggling to cope with severe overcrowding.

Tony Fitzpatrick is industrial relations officer with the INMO.

"This gentleman is like many people in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda - for example yesterday, there was 15 people over the age of 70 waiting for a hospital bed for three, four and five days at a time", he told Newstalk Breakfast.

The hospital has a new emergency department which was built back in 2010 - but Mr Fitzpatrick says most cubicles have two trolleys in them, even thought they are only designed for one.

"There's three corridors in the emergency department, you have...up to 40 patients on those corridors".

"They're on a hard trolley, they're head-to-toe, they've no where to keep their belongings, the facilities are inadequate".

The Health Service Executive (HSE) said yesterday: " A new building in Drogheda in the hospital will be open with eight clinical decision beds".

However, Mr Fitzpatrick says those already waiting for a bed would not have been helped by these eight additions.

He says there are simply too many patients with too little staff, calling the situation "dangerous".

Last month we took an in-depth look at the rural health service, with three separate reports on regional hospitals, aired on The Pat Kenny Show - including a report from Our Lady of Lourdes Drogheda.

You can read that report here