A "critical" shortage of nurses at a County Armagh hospital has led to calls for better long-term planning by the health service.

Craigavon Area Hospital's trust has paid out nearly �120,000 in recruitment fees in the overseas search for nurses.

Resignations by nurses have almost doubled in the last year and since April, staff nurses have been resigning at the rate of two every month.

The hospital must now recruit more than 50 new nurses by next February to cope with patient needs.

A number of other hospitals have also been affected by the shortage of nurses and some health trusts are recruiting in Trinidad and Tobago.

More than �120,000 has been spent recruiting nurses from overseas

However, the severe domestic shortage is described as critical at Craigavon.

Delia van der Linden of the Southern Health Council said the problem at most hospitals had been due to a lack of long-term planning.

"I think this is something that is well outside the ability of Craigavon hospital or any other hospital to cope with on their own," she said.

"But we have had a lack of long-term planning in the health service and some of our local hospitals are reaping the rewards of that.

"What we would be calling for, as a body that represents patients interests, is for far more attention to be given to the long term needs of the health service."

Figures released earlier this month showed that one in every 16 nurses in the province is from outside the British Isles.

The main suppliers are Australia, the Phillipines, and India and many hospitals have launched campaigns to try to attract more foreign workers.

Nursing has always been an internationally mobile profession.

Northern Ireland, for instance, has always supplied nurses not just to elsewhere in the British Isles but in large quantities to north America as well.