Tallaght Hospital says it's been left with no choice but to give adults beds in one of its children's wards.
Management took the move following what they're calling an "unprecedented" rise in numbers turning up to its Emergency Department.
Bosses say it's a temporary measure and all eight beds will go back to being used for children as soon as possible.
In a statement, the hospital said that it has "temporarily reassigned an eight bedded facility adjacent to the adult ED."
"The additional beds have been drawn from an area of the Hospital’s paediatric Short Stay Observation Unit which is temporarily closed. The Hospital has put in place all requisite measures to facilitate the change of use of this unit."
The statement went on to say that "This is a temporary measure and unfortunately necessary as all adult escalation areas and beds are in use. The beds in question will revert to the Paediatric service in due course."
"The Hospital is making every effort to balance the demands of both adult and paediatric services. There were 29 adult patients on trolleys and no paediatric patients awaiting beds/on trolleys at 8am this morning. The Hospital would like to apologise to patients for any delays they may experience during this busy period", the statement ended.
