SIPTU, INMO and Fórsa trade union members at Letterkenny University Hospital have staged a protest in opposition to the HSE's Pay and Number’s Strategy.
SIPTU Organiser Ciaran Sheridan said the union’s members are "deeply frustrated at the lack of recruitment in certain areas of the hospital and across the region".
He said members "are concerned about the potential impact on services".
"It is clear to them that the HSE’s policy on recruitment is not fit for purpose and places an effective embargo on the recruitment of staff in certain areas," he added.
Mr Sheridan said that the HSE’s approach needs to be reviewed so they can "have meaningful, local engagement with the employer to resolve local recruitment issues where they are arising".
A key issue of concern for SIPTU members is staffing levels within the HSE with many feeling that frontline roles have not benefited from record levels of investment in the health service.
The INMO said the approach taken to the Pay and Numbers Strategy is having a "detrimental effect on frontline services".
The Nurses union said their priority is to end this recruitment moratorium so "directors of nursing and midwifery have appropriate sanction to recruit and fill posts as necessary to ensure safety and to meet service demand".
Fórsa has told its members that there is "a need for more directly employed staff, rather than increased spending on agencies and private consultants".
