The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has welcomed the release of a revised policy for tackling emergency department overcrowding.

The policy says there should be "zero tolerance" for patients waiting more than nine hours for a bed.

The revised procedures are to be implemented across all Health Service Executive (HSE) hospitals.

The policy was agreed by the Emergency Department Task Force Implementation Group, which includes the head of the HSE Tony O'Brien and the INMO General-Secretary Liam Doran.

The revised policy provides for a hospital to be fined, if it breaches the nine hour wait time - and it is shown it did not activate the measures required, in a timely manner.

It also provides clarity on a range of issues, including that the policy is universally applied across all hospitals with an emergency department and partner community healthcare organisations - and also clearly requires named personnel, with appropriate status and authority, to address the issue of overcrowding.

It says that escalation procedures must be initiated when 30% of emergency department cubicles are occupied by patients waiting admission.

And it calls for removal of extra beds and trolleys on in-patient wards in a planned, controlled, timely and explicit manner.