Recruitment is underway for nurses to staff the opening of twenty beds at St John's Hospital in Limerick.
Ten beds were opened yesterday at the hospital with an additional ten to come on stream on a phased basis before the end of April.
The decision to open the new beds was made in the wake of extreme pressure on the Emergency Department of the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Dooradoyle.
Interviews for the fifteen nursing posts commenced last Friday.
These beds at St John's are in addition to 21 extra beds coming on stream at the Dooradoyle campus by the end of the year.
Six of these beds have already been provided. Two new acute medicine physicians have been appointed and have taken up duty and a third is to start next week.
