Nurses in Tipperary have voted in favour of industrial action as a result of inadequate staffing levels, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has confirmed.

Nurses working in both St Patrick's Hospital in Cashel and St Anthony's Unit in Clonmel have voted ‘overwhelmingly' in favour of action, which may include ‘a full withdrawal of nurses from these sites'.

The INMO has attended a number of meetings with management in recent months, during which nurses provided details about their inability to provide acceptable levels of care to vulnerable patients.

According to INMO industrial relations officer, Mary Fogarty, members have been ‘forced into this dispute, which is not for themselves, but for their patient population who are elderly, frail and vulnerable'.

"Nurses have a duty to advocate to the HSE on their behalf. The current nurse staffing levels are inadequate across all shifts," she noted.

The INMO is meeting with HSE officials on June 7 and it insisted that if an action plan to fill nursing vacancies is not forthcoming, this will ‘make industrial action inevitable'.