Dublin's Mater Hospital has moved to ICU surge capacity and now needs to ventilate patients outside of intensive care, the President of the Intensive Care Society of Ireland has said.
Dr Colman O'Loughlin, a consultant in the Mater, said this is the first time this has happened since the third wave of Covid-19.
He said the need to go into surge brings a degree of harm because services to other patients have to be curtailed and warned that hospitals are in a serious situation and at high capacity levels with Covid patients.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, Dr O'Loughlin said too many acute hospitals beds are taken up with Covid-19 patients, adding that it is next to impossible to try and run a normal health system alongside this.