A number of ambulances arriving at the Cork University Hospital emergency department last night were held up for over two hours, waiting to handover patients, according to figures seen by RTÉ News.

Because of hospital overcrowding, a number of paramedics had to wait with patients to handover to emergency department staff and then return to other ambulance duties.

Some of the cases were logged as red calls which means life-threatening.

The longest delay logged was 161 minutes, which is over two-and-a-half hours.

Other ambulances were delayed at the hospital by 152 minutes, 146 minutes, 135 minutes and 50 minutes.

Among the patient cases were people with chest pains, breathing problems, trauma injury and falls.

CUH said it remained exceptionally busy today and over the last number of days and it was regrettable that some patients faced a delay.

Today, there were 568 patients waiting for admission to a bed, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.

It put the number waiting at Cork University Hospital at 54.

The HSE has put the overall figure nationally at 423 patients waiting.