Over 1,300 nursing and midwifery posts are currently vacant in acute hospitals due to a ban on recruitment by the HSE, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has said.

According to new figures from the INMO, a total of 1,317 funded posts are currently vacant - 1,251 of these are staff posts, while a further 66 are management posts.

On top of this, there are also 420 vacancies in community health services, which covers public health, care of the elderly and care of people with intellectual disabilities.

The INMO said that in acute hospitals, midwifery posts have been hit the hardest, with 17% of all staff posts left unfilled - 284 vacancies out of a workforce of 1,687.

It noted that in 2017, the HSE had pledged to increase the number of midwives (1,409) by 210 by the end of 2018 to ensure safety could be maintained. However, in July 2019, the number of midwives had actually gone down to 1,403.

The INMO insisted that the HSE's recruitment "pause" is the main reason for these unfilled posts. Its general secretary, Phil Ni Sheaghdha, described the figures as "stark".

"The Government is refusing to fill frontline healthcare posts. Make no mistake, this will lead to compromised patient care and staff burnout.

"Midwifery is being hit particularly hard by the Government's recruitment ban, with one in six posts left vacant. Even if we filled all of these posts, we would still fall far short of the safe staffing levels promised by the Government," she insisted.

She pointed out that midwifery vacancies disproportionately affect women and described this issue as "yet another unwelcome example of the Government's approach to women's health".

Ms Ni Sheaghdha said that graduating nurses and midwives are currently considering their employment options, yet they are being turned away from understaffed hospitals.

"Despite repeated public promises from the Minister for Health that they would all have full-time permanent jobs upon graduation, the majority have not received offers or contracts.

"The recruitment ban has got to go. It breaches agreements with the INMO, drives up agency costs, puts frontline staff under extra pressure, and puts patients' lives at risk. Until we can get staffing up to safe levels, we are calling on the HSE to scale back services and close many non-essential wards," she added.