The General Secretary of the INMO says patients are suffering in silence in Mullingar Hospital - while staff are overworked.

Liam Doran has joined around 30 nurses and midwives at a demonstration at the facility this afternoon to highlight overcrowding and staff shortages.

The protest comes as 30 patients are on hospital trolleys in the emergency department or in full wards in Mullingar.

Speaking to Midlands 103, one nurse who has worked in emergency departments for 15 years, described what it is like to work in overcrowded conditions. 

"You cannot move, health and safety just goes out the window. There's trolleys blocking corridors, there's trolleys blocking fire escape routes, fire hydrants.

"(There are) people everywhere, you have families standing at the end of a trolley, they don’t even have chairs to sit down beside their loved ones, and they can be there from anything from 24 to 48 hours," she said.

Trolley figures for last month showed an increase of 253% on December 2013.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) is urging the health minister to intervene and allow the recruitment of additional staff.

It also wants step down beds opened, so patients can be moved after their acute care.

INMO industrial relations officer, Derek Reilly, says patient numbers have increased - but nursing staff numbers have dropped.