London: Britain's National Health Service (NHS) is to recruit more than 600 nurses - mostly from the Philippines but also some from India - as an emergency measure to meet a critical shortage in Northern Ireland, it was announced on Monday.

The nurses cannot be found in the European Union not because of Brexit but because there is also a shortage of trained staff on the Continent.

Across the UK as a whole there is a reported shortage of 40,000 nurses but in Northern Ireland, the shortfall is said to be 1,500 - 10 per cent below capacity. Pegging nurses' pay to 1 per cent increases has aggravated the problem.

Many in the NHS do not think it ethical to strip developing countries of much needed nurses. Charlotte McArdle, Northern Ireland's chief nursing officer, said a decision had been taken to launch an overseas recruitment programme.

"Through that programme we are hoping to recruit 622 nurses, mainly from the Philippines, with some from India, by 2020," she said.

The professor added: "We have a history with the Philippines, and to a lesser extent India, from the last shortage around 2000."

She spelt out the extent of the crisis. "We are running with just under 10 per cent vacancy levels. In the context of Northern Ireland we have probably in the region of between 15,000 and 17,000 posts and about 1,500 vacancies," she said.

"That is significant, but in the context of what is happening around us, it certainly isn't as bad as what would be happening in England or the Republic of Ireland and it is probably on a par with Scotland and Wales. This year is going to be difficult in terms of nurse recruitment."

She stressed that getting nurses in from overseas was only an interim measure "to get through the difficult years".

"The answer for us is to grow our own workforce," she went on. "We can't be reliant on other places to do that for us. The overseas programme is an interim step to help balance things while we get to the other side."

She recognised there had been greater investment over the past two years with the department of health increasing pre-registration nursing student places from 650 to 900 - an increase of 39 per cent.

There were between eight and 10 applicants for every undergraduate place.

However, the first band of new nurses will not complete their university qualifications until 2019, she pointed out.