More than a month into a high-profile campaign to attract 500 nurses back to Ireland, just 10 had joined the health service.

An INMO senior executive has warned that the HSE’s new nursing recruitment drive could face problems if a staffing crisis and backlog of applications can’t be cleared.

As many as 45% of HSE staff who responded to an online survey conducted last September said they had witnessed an error, a near miss, or an incident that “could have hurt” patients in the previous month running up to the survey.

The Government has ramped up the pressure on doctors over health service reform plans by insisting free GP care for children under six and the elderly will be introduced by summer.