Nurses at Naas General Hospital braved the showers on their lunch-break yesterday to protest at overcrowding in the hospital's temporary emergency department.
The Irish Nurses' Organisation said the average waiting time for patients being admitted through the department is 48 hours.
If they are lucky, patients spend this time on a trolley. If a sicker patient comes into the department, however, a patient may have to move to a chair.
On occasion some give up their beds for sicker patients and move on to a trolley, claimed INO official Ms Phil Ni Sheaghdha.
The temporary department, housed in a pre-fab, has six bays for trolleys. According to Ms Ni Sheaghdha, nurses have to "beg, borrow or steal" trollies from elsewhere in the hospital at times of high demand.
The South Western Area Health Board, which manages the hospital, said it recognises "much of the infrastructure of the hospital is inadequate to cope with the increasing demands for services from the spiralling population of the local area".
It asked the staff for "understanding and co-operation" until the new £80 million hospital is built.
But the INO says that unless the number of extra in-patient beds - projected at 37 - is at least doubled, bed shortages will continue.
Ms Ni Sheaghdha said the hospital has only 92 in-patient beds - the crux of the problem. While the new hospital would be able to perform an increased amount of day surgery, most admissions through casualty were of a non-surgical nature.
The South Western Area Health Board said that "Naas General Hospital, like all acute hospitals in the eastern region, is experiencing pressure in the A/E department".
Work on the new hospital "is progressing rapidly and the new accident and emergency department and in-patient beds are scheduled for completion next year".