The manager of the Toraigh Co-Operative has described as "shocking" the fact the island will be without a resident nurse until 23 February.
Islanders on Toraigh were yesterday informed by the HSE that no resident nurse will be available for ten days.
Around 140 islanders live on Toraigh, which is 14km off the mainland.
The island is serviced by two full-time nurses who rotate their time on a fortnightly basis.
However, a HSE memo was forwarded to islanders stating that no nurse will be available to the island from 1pm yesterday for ten days.
It also advised people on the island to pick up prescriptions by 1pm yesterday.
"In case of an emergency please contact your GP or Nowdoc after surgery hours," the memo reads.
Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, Toraigh Co-Operative manager Marjorie Carroll said that it was the longest time she could remember for the island to be left with no nurse.
"The nurse is an essential service on the island. Unfortunately this seems to be occurring too many times. Last October we were left for six days without a nurse. Again, now in February, we're left now for ten days," she said.
"We have no one to call to call on now"
"The same thing happened this time last year and unfortunately it's like Groundhog Day here again."
Ms Carroll said there were now no medical services available on the island.
"If anyone should take ill now at the moment, then they have to ring their own GP or the NowDoc like you would do if you were living on the mainland.
"But we're out here, nine miles off the coast, and should anyone get sick or anything on the island like we have no one to call on now, apart from the Coast Guard helicopter," she said.
This has been an ongoing issue for a number of years, she said, and called for a third nurse to be added to the rota.
"We just seem to be getting absolutely nowhere with this issue. Basically, what's needed is a third nurse to be allocated to the island, so they could cover when the other nurses are off on an annual leave ... it's difficult for the HSE then to be able to get cover. They said to us yesterday they were going to work on this going forward," she said.
"I really hope for all of our sakes that they will be working on this," she added.
