Midwives are seeking an increase in staff to cope with a high demand for services at a Limerick maternity hospital.
The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) said midwives at St Munchin's Maternity Hospital have held a series of meetings over the past 18 months with hospital management seeking to address staff shortages.
The nursing body said it has requested the intervention of the Labour Relations Commission after the talks had failed to achieve substantial changes.
Midwives claim the hospital is facing significant demands on its services, which have not seen appropriate increases in midwifery and support staff such as porters and health care assistants.
Mary Fogarty, industrial relations officer with the INO, said: "Until these extra resources are secured and review of staffing levels is implemented, our members will remain working in a high risk environment, unable to give mothers and babies a satisfactory level of care that meets best practice standards."
The INO has requested the intervention of the LRC in carrying out a staff review, increase in porter services and a rise in the number of health care assistants employed at the hospital.
The Health Services Executive (HSE) said the maternity hospital as the fourth largest in the country was extremely busy but a number of claims made by the INO on staffing levels were exaggerated. The HSE said the hospital records show the number of midwives employed at the Limerick hospital increased by 33% over the past six years from 147 in 2000 to 196 in 2006.
"Three new care attendant positions have also been created and an independent review of staffing and skill mix levels at the hospital will commence shortly," the HSE spokesman said.
"There has also been a massive investment in new facilities at the hospital in recent years including three new labour wards, emergency theatre and recovery area. A new admissions unit has been completed and it is hoped to open it shortly and the Neo Natal Unit is being refurbished at present."