Some 28 patients due to attend a Tipperary hospital today have had their appointments cancelled due to an escalation of industrial action by nurses.
The patients were to attend South Tipperary General Hospital in Clonmel for general surgical and medical procedures as well as outpatient consultations. But the hospital is one of three experiencing work stoppages by nurses from 11am to noon today.
As a result, management - in consultation with doctors and the two unions representing the nurses, the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) - have contacted the 28 patients to tell them to stay at home.
But the hospital emphasised that people whose procedures had been deferred would have them rescheduled as soon as possible. The surgical procedures deferred were mainly diagnostic, including endoscopic examinations to determine if patients had bowel cancer.
Meanwhile, St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin, which is also to be hit today by a one-hour work stoppage by nurses, said that no operations had been cancelled, but that there would be delays for those attending as out-patients. "However, it is important that patients attend at their appointed time, even if this is between 11am and midday, the hour of the work stoppage," the hospital said.
The third and final service to be affected by today's work stoppage by nurses is the South Tipperary Mental Health Service, including St Luke's Psychiatric Hospital in Clonmel - but in these services the disruption is expected to be minimal.
Séamus Murphy, industrial relations officer with the PNA, said that a memorandum of understanding in relation to the work stoppage had been reached between management of the mental health services and the PNA yesterday. He said it had been agreed that night-duty staffing levels would continue in St Luke's during the work stoppage and that one nurse would remain on duty in all mental health service units in the community. "Where only one nurse is employed in a particular unit, that nurse will stay on duty," he said.
Pickets will be placed outside each of the three hospitals where work stoppages are taking place and the nursing unions have said that they will lengthen the work stoppages at other hospitals in coming days in the absence of talks to resolve the dispute. The nurses are seeking a 10.6 per cent pay rise and a 35-hour working week. At present, they work a 39-hour week.
Meanwhile, as the work-to-rule by about 40,000 INO and PNA members continues at all hospitals across the country, Gerry O'Dwyer, of the Health Service Executive's (HSE) national hospitals office, said it was resulting in the admission and discharge of patients being slowed down. He said that A&E units at a number of hospitals were experiencing congestion yesterday. These included hospitals in Waterford, Kilkenny, Cork, Cavan, Drogheda, and at Blanchardstown and the Mater in Dublin. He again appealed to people not to attend A&E unless absolutely necessary and to go to a GP instead.
The Irish Association of Emergency Medicine appealed to both sides to work together to resolve the dispute. But Brendan Mulligan, of the HSE Employers Agency, said that no fresh talks were planned between the two sides.
"I would again ask the INO and PNA to accept the Labour Court recommendation, as the employers have done. Once that happens, then we can all engage within the framework set out by the Labour Court," he said.