Radiographers seeking a better life outside Dublin 4 have caused St Vincent's University Hospital to ask GPs not to send patients for x-rays and CT scans.
The hospital is also sending some out-patients to St Columcille's Hospital and St Luke's Hospital for CT scans because of the shortage of radiographers.
Consultants have been told public patients must be given priority for the curtailed service and that patients with health insurance should be encouraged to have scans done privately.
Consultant radiologist Dr Dermot Malone said the hospital had lost radiographers because of two developments.
The first was that country and regional hospitals have "quite rightly" been funded to upgrade their radiography services which are to include CT scans and ultrasound.
Radiographers paying big mortgages in Dublin on modest salaries found it attractive to take the new jobs created in hospitals elsewhere in the country.
One radiographer who had bought a house in Dublin for £50,000 had been able to sell it for £200,000 and buy a house on half an acre in a city outside the capital.
St Vincent's also lost staff to other Dublin hospitals.
"This is an awful area to commute to," Dr Malone said. It was also a very expensive area to live in for anyone not settled there.
In the meantime, the hospital hopes to get its staffing levels back to normal early next year with the help of radiographers from Australia, South Africa and New Zealand.
pomorain@irish-times.ie