A recruitment campaign aimed at nurses is urgently needed to deal with the overcrowding crisis in Irish hospitals, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has insisted.

Speaking at the second meeting of the Emergency Department (ED) Taskforce on Wednesday, the INMO called for an immediate recruitment campaign specifically targeted at the UK.

The meeting, which was attended by Health Minister Leo Varadkar, health service unions and management representatives, acknowledged that if additional beds are to be opened in hospitals, additional nursing staff must also be made available.

Those attending were told that currently, there are over 750 patients who are finished the acute stage of their care, but who remain in hospital as there is nowhere for them to go. It was agreed that the issue of ‘delayed discharges' must continue to be given priority.

"At the meeting, the INMO sought an immediate, flexible and localised recruitment campaign for nursing posts, which would offer permanent posts, with attractive terms and conditions, comparing favourably with what is being offered in other countries particularly the UK," commented INMO industrial relations officer, Phil Ni Sheaghdha.

She insisted that this ‘will have to form part of any final action plan'.

"In the interim, we will be seeking localised recruitment to allow for the opening of additional beds to deal with the current overcrowding crisis," she added.

Speaking after the meeting, Minister Varadkar insisted that this is a ‘priority issue' for him and the Government.

"ED overcrowding is a blight on our health service. It is a chronic problem that has beset us for at least 15 years and turns into a crisis whenever there is a surge of patients or a significant delay in discharges. It is not an ED problem per se but rather a systemic one that manifests itself in the ED," he commented.

He said that a number of measures have been taken to ease the current situation, including the cancellation of non-urgent elective surgeries, the re-opening of closed wards and the provision of additional home care packages.

He also noted that to ‘speed up patient flow', additional diagnostic scans are being made available and ‘consultants are being asked to do ward rounds twice a day to speed up discharge'.

He added that while Ireland should be a country in which people can grow old with dignity, ‘today, that is not always the case'.