There are now more than 1,700 vacancies for nurses in public hospitals across the country, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).
Speaking at its annual conference in Killarney the union's director of industrial relations Phil Ní Sheaghdha also strongly disputed assertions by the Government that an additional 1,000 nurses had been recruited in public hospitals.
She said the HSE accepted that in acute hospitals 66 per cent of nurses recruited were already working in the public service.
She said hospitals were experiencing severe problems in recruiting and retaining nurses.
Ms Ní Sheaghdha said while hospitals were recruiting nurses, significant numbers were also leaving.
She told the conference that the INMO had notified Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda on Thursday that the union was "going into dispute with it".
“We need 109 additional nursing posts [in Drogheda] and they cannot retain staff. They recruited, for example, 76 nurses, but they lost 97 in the same period of time. So it is a huge issue.”
She said hospitals were not winning the fight to recruit and retain nurses and in fact the situation was getting worse.
Ms Ní Sheaghdha said the INMO strongly disputed that 1,000 additional nurses had been recruited to the public service.
She said the acute hospitals division in the HSE had told the union that each time it went to recruit, of those they managed to take on a total of 66 per cent were already public servants, either in a voluntary hospital or somewhere else in the public system.
“They are not new or additional nurses. The figures show that 66 per cent is churn.”
Ms Ní Sheaghdha told the conference that according to HSE acute hospital figures, there were now 74 fewer staff nurses in the public system than there were last December.
She said HSE figures also revealed that at the end of September hospitals recorded having 1,624 nurses starting work but at the same time there were 1,287 people leaving.
“That is 337 net of an increase from a total recruitment of 1,624.”
Ms Ní Sheaghdha said the HSE accepted there were 1,272 nursing positions that should be filled but were vacant. She said in addition a further 450 midwives were required to reach the staff/birth numbers ratio set out in the new national maternity strategy.
