Nearly 1,400 nursing posts are vacant in Irish hospitals, and the use of agency nurses and overtime is failing to bridge the gap, a new survey shows.
The survey, by the Health Service Employers' Agency, found that at the end of September 1,388 nursing vacancies existed.
Many of the vacant posts are being covered by agency nurses. Every day 414 such nurses are working in the hospitals.
Large amounts of overtime are also being used to cover the vacant posts. Overtime worked every week amounts to the equivalent of 498 full-time nurses.
However, this leaves 476 vacant posts in the system which are not being covered at all, with the familiar results of closed wards and cancelled operations.
The position of the voluntary hospitals worsened in the last year. They recruited 1,284 nurses, but 1,335 retired or resigned.
The main impact of nursing shortages is felt in Dublin. Health boards outside the greater Dublin area were able to recruit far more nurses than those who left. For instance four health boards - Western, Mid-Western, NorthWestern and North Eastern - recruited 559 nurses while only 209 left.
In Dublin the opposite is the case, with more nurses leaving than joining. "This is partially explained by traditional movement from Dublin training hospitals to other parts of the country," says the HSEA.
Hospitals are turning to other countries to find nurses, and 336 from abroad were recruited in the past year.
One of the hospitals most active in recruiting from abroad was the Mater in Dublin in which the number of Irish and foreign nurses recruited was 101 greater than the number who left.