A Dublin hospice has had to defer admissions of elderly people to its long-stay unit until the new year because of shortages.
Our Lady's Hospice in Harold's Cross took the decision because of difficulties in recruiting nursing staff in particular. It has vacancies for 10 registered nurses and 10 care attendants.
Ms Mary Flanagan, the assistant director of nursing, said the shortages would not be allowed to affect palliative care wards, which admit patients suffering from terminal illnesses such as cancer.
"In one or two wards for elderly patients we have decided to defer admissions until January, by which time we would hope to have more staff," she said.
"We are actively recruiting at the moment in Northern Ireland, the UK and Scotland and may have to go farther afield if this is not successful."
Cappagh Orthopaedic Hospital in Dublin is short almost 10 per cent of its full-time nursing staff. But its director of nursing, Ms Eilis Carroll, said services were not affected.
The shortfall is covered by agency nurses and staff working overtime.
The hospital hopes to be able to recruit nurses soon from the Philippines.
"We are down 9.5 whole-time equivalent nurses, which does not seem a lot but we are a small operation and for us this is therefore significant," she said.
Ms Carroll added that while nurses were the most difficult to find, it is also difficult to recruit paramedical staff such as physiotherapists and occupational therapists.
The National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire has been unable to work at full capacity in the past year because of staff shortages, Dr Mark Delargy, specialist in brain injury rehabilitation at the hospital, said.
The hospital's director of nursing is trying to recruit nurses from the Philippines to allow all its wards of 120 beds to be adequately staffed.
A shortage of community care services is also affecting the hospital, Dr Delargy said.
Families are reluctant to see patients discharged because the local health boards cannot provide the level of help needed at home.
Some of the more dependent patients need assistance for many hours every day.
A heavily-dependent patient could use up half the budget of a local community care service, he said.
A solution would be a national fund which the hospital could use to fund extra services, to be provided by the local community care team.
Dr Delargy confirmed that due to staff shortages there had been a few "exceptional" occasions on which children had been accommodated in adult wards.
"We do recognise that this is inappropriate and very much to be avoided," he said.
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