Consultants at St Columcille's Hospital, Loughlinstown have warned its management that contingency arrangements to deal with an industrial dispute by theatre nurses in the casualty department are unsafe.
A number of consultants have written to management calling for the closure of the accident and emergency department when on-call nursing services are withdrawn.
They warned that the provision of an ambulance outside the unit to ferry emergency surgery cases to other hospitals was inadequate from a safety perspective.
Routine on-call cover at the Dublin hospital was withdrawn two weeks ago when strike notice was issued by the hospital's 12 theatre nurses. The dispute centres on levels of on-call duties and pay.