Almost a quarter of the beds in a community hospital in Co Kerry are closed and admissions are being restricted because six of its 18 nurses are on leave, it has emerged.
Tom Leonard, the general manager of community health services in Kerry, said there appeared to be no nurses in the south Kerry area available to take up contract work to replace those on leave.
The 45-bed Cahersiveen Community Hospital serves south Kerry, and its patients are mainly elderly. It also offers hospice and respite care facilities. All 35 beds available to patients in the hospital were occupied yesterday.
Mr Leonard said it was an exceptional situation. However, there were no nurses available in the area, and there seemed to be no unemployed nurses locally.
The health service had advertised for nurses for the hospital who would be employed on three- and six-month contracts to fill in for those on leave, but could not find candidates. They had also advertised for permanent nurses for Cahersiveen Community Hospital but without success.
Mr Leonard added that 80 extra Filipino nurses were due to be employed in acute hospitals in Cork and Kerry, and the health service might consider deploying some nurses to Cahersiveen.
He told Radio Kerry yesterday that the acting matron would like to hear from nurses in the area.