People are being asked to consider "all care options" before going to the Emergency Department at University Hospital Limerick.
All scheduled activity across the UL Hospitals Group has been deferred as the hospital is currently experiencing "extremely high demand".
"We have been caring for an exceptionally high number of unwell medical patients in the hospital, and the Emergency Department has seen its highest week of emergency presentations since the beginning of the year," hospital management said in a statement yesterday.
As of 8am yesterday there were 1,716 emergency presentations with a daily average of 245 patients.
"UHL is currently at its highest state of escalation, surge capacity has been opened at UHL and across our hospitals," the hospital said.
Scheduled activity across all sites has been deferred for today and will remain under review with only urgent and time-critical patients, including cancer patients, going ahead.
The Emergency Department remains open and urgent care is being delivered to those who need it most.
"Anyone who comes to ED who doesn’t have a life-threatening or severe illness or injury will face a significant wait," the statement said.
"We apologise to anyone who has had a long wait for admission to University Hospital Limerick in recent days, and to all who have been impacted by deferrals of surgery," it added.
People across Limerick, Clare and North Tipperary are 'encouraged' to make use of all available alternatives to the ED.
These include local pharmacies for minor ailments, family doctors, out-of-hours GP services and the Injury Units at Ennis, Nenagh and St John's Hospitals.
