Health service unions are to meet tomorrow to plan their response to the decision by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to extend its ban on recruitment for at least another month.
The ongoing ban, unions said, will lead to longer waiting times for patients and a winter of discontent in the health service.
When the unions meet tomorrow, sources said all options would be on the table but if industrial action is considered the 100,000 staff they represent will have to be balloted first. It is more likely their initial response will be in the form of a major rally or lunchtime protests.
The unions are also seeking an immediate Labour Relations Commission hearing, claiming it is in breach of Towards 2016.
The HSE yesterday decided to continue with its recruitment freeze, which began last month, in a bid to reduce its financial deficit, which is currently running at over €200 million.
"We are looking into a winter where staffing levels will be reduced and bed availability will be reduced and that is not good news for anyone who is going to use the public health service between now and the end of the year," the general secretary of the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO), Liam Doran, said.
Already there have been bed closures in Tullamore, Clonmel, Galway and Limerick. Staff are being laid off at Sligo General Hospital, outpatient clinics in Mullingar are being curtailed and nine nurses on temporary contracts were laid off by Tullamore General Hospital on Friday.
Fintan Hourihan, director of industrial relations with the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), said a rehabilitation ward in St Luke's Hospital, Kilkenny, was also being closed. He added that as the ban continues more hospitals are likely to be affected.
Kevin Callinan, national secretary of Impact's health and welfare division, said members were angry the ban was continuing and patient care was being affected. The HSE denies this. Mr Doran said: "The likelihood of localised reactions to cutbacks can't be ruled out and the staff panel [ the group of unions] will have to make a decision about a collective response . . . we can't rule out any response."
HSE management met the INO, IMO and Impact yesterday to inform them the ban was continuing. It will be reviewed on October 31st. The ban includes a freeze on extra agency staff and staff overtime as well as a bar on staff returning from career breaks. The HSE said there may be exceptional circumstances where the appointment of front- line staff may be necessary and a sub-group of key managers will now meet weekly to discuss approval of such appointments.
It also said four projects would now be exempt from the ban including the recruitment of staff to establish the Cherry Orchard community nursing units in Dublin; to introduce the "Fair Deal" arrangements relating to nursing home subventions; case/liaison officers for people with a disability; and staff required to open a new admissions unit/community hostel for the Central Mental Hospital.
The HSE has admitted it booked a number of rooms in the Radisson Hotel, Sligo to interview up to 200 candidates for middle management posts over a number of days in recent weeks. This is despite a ban on recruitment and on the use of hotels while the HSE attempts to reduce its deficit.
A spokeswoman for the HSE said five interview panels were sitting at the same time and the HSE could not accommodate them in its own facilities. Donal Duffy, of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, said it was impossible to reconcile this spending by the HSE with its decision to end the employment of up to 40 staff in Sligo General Hospital. "You can't on the one hand fire 30 nurses and a number of consultants because you are short of money and then spend the money on renting hotel rooms which does nothing for patient care," he said.