The HSE has no plan to deal with extra patients this winter and has been unable to fill 169 nursing posts in Emergency Departments (EDs) nationwide, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has said.

According to the INMO, these revelations came during a meeting between it and officials from both the HSE and the Department of Health. This meeting took place at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on September 7.

The INMO said that the HSE admitted that it has no plan for EDs during the upcoming winter, and it has been unable to fill 169 ED nursing posts for which it has funding.

Furthermore, according to recognised staffing ratios, an additional 57 nurses are required to provide minimum levels of safe care. However, funding for these posts is not available.

Officials at the meeting were also unable to guarantee replacements for nurses who are on maternity leave.

"It's impossible to think that things could get any worse, but winter is coming and there's still no plan. It will simply be impossible to provide safe care. EDs were overcrowded in the summer - they'll be warzones once winter comes," commented one INMO member and ED nurse after the meeting.

According to INMO director of industrial relations, Tony Fitzpatrick, ‘the recruitment and retention crisis is deepening, with hundreds of nursing vacancies in hospitals across Ireland'.

"Nurses and midwives will be protesting at some of the worst-affected hospitals in the coming weeks. We cannot go on like this," he commented.

A number of lunchtime protests by nurses and midwives are taking place this week - at University Hospital Galway on September 10, and Cork University Hospital and Limerick University Hospital, on September 11.

More protests are due to be announced and according to INMO general secretary, Phil Ni Sheaghdha, ‘it's time for the HSE to be honest with the public'.

"Nurses and midwives are constantly apologising to patients for the conditions in the health service. Thousands of patients are trapped on trolleys every week, and things will only get worse as winter bites," she said.