The IMO has warned that 200 or more junior posts may be left unfilled in Irish hospitals in the coming weeks as current contracts expire and more and more Irish trained doctors go to work abroad.

Irish hospitals are currently understaffed at both consultant and NCHD levels and the situation is set to worsen, the doctors' union has warned.

IMO Assistant Industrial Relations Eric Young, said Irish hospitals were facing a staffing crisis.

"Most NCHD (junior doctor) contracts run from July and there are strong signs that as more and more NCHDs leave the Irish health services, we will be left with hundreds of unfilled posts. That means chaos in the affected hospitals and, unfortunately, delays and hardship for patients."

Mr. Young criticised delays by the HSE in speeding up implementation of the European Working Time Directive (EWTD) to implement shorter working hours for doctors.

"It's almost 10 months since NCHDs went on strike to force the Government to take this matter seriously and there are still unacceptable delays in making sure that all hospitals are EWTD-compliant."

Mr Young said issues such as long working hours were driving doctors abroad and depleting a health service already under pressure.

"This is a safety issue first and foremost but its also now a manpower issue as the failure to implement the directive has encouraged a huge number of NCHDs to leave the Irish health services and go to somewhere where their talents and skills are property recognised and resourced."

Emergency medicine consultants have already warned  that few if any EDs will not be short of their normal complement of junior doctor staff come mid July.

The Irish Association for Emergency Medicine (IAEM) says over the past five years, it has become ‘increasingly difficult' to staff the country's 30 EDs. However, this problem is now ‘worse than ever'