Over 100 extra nursing posts have been secured for hospitals in Kildare and the mid west following two separate hearings involving the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).

According to the INMO, 70 nursing staff are to be recruited at hospitals in the mid west, including University Hospital Limerick and Ennis General. A further 39 staff are to be recruited at Naas General Hospital.

As a result of this, INMO members in the mid west have deferred industrial action which was due to begin today (February 3). Nurses in Naas, who were to begin industrial action tomorrow (February 4) are also expected to defer this action.

Commenting on the news, INMO industrial relations officers, Mary Fogarty and Derek Reilly, said that this is a positive outcome for staff ‘who have continued to struggle with unmanageable workloads on a daily basis due to persistent overcrowding and understaffing'.

"We are now calling for an aggressive recruitment campaign to have the posts filled immediately in order to alleviate the continued suffering of patients in inhumane conditions and to allow our members to provide safe care. All barriers to the recruitment of nurses must now be lifted," they said.

Yesterday, the INMO expressed concern about the HSE's action plan on Emergency Department (ED) overcrowding, which it insisted, ‘lacks urgency'.

It made its comments after the third meeting of the ED Taskforce, during which a draft plan to alleviate chronic overcrowding was discussed.

The INMO pointed out that its ‘Trolley and Ward Watch' figures showed that the number of admitted patients on trolleys was 9% higher in January of this year compared to January 2014.

Yesterday alone, 442 patients were on trolleys nationwide, compared to 290 on the same day last year.