Some 16 patients due to attend Sligo General Hospital today have had their appointments postponed due to industrial action by nurses.
The hospital is one of three acute hospitals which will be affected by one-hour work stoppages by nurses today.
It said last night it had deferred five operations, one diagnostic procedure, and 10 outpatient appointments.
The other hospitals to be hit today by stoppages, which begin at 11am, are Louth County Hospital in Dundalk and Bantry General Hospital in Co Cork. These hospitals said they do not expect the stoppage to cause any major disruption.
Mental health services across four counties will also be affected by the one-hour stoppage. These include the Sligo/Leitrim mental health services, Louth mental health services and west Cork mental health services. However, the HSE said it had received assurances patient care would not be affected.
Meanwhile, industrial action in the form of a work-to-rule by about 40,000 nurses who are members of the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses' Association (PNA) continues across the State and is now in its third week. Nurses are not dealing with non-essential phone calls or carrying out clerical or IT duties.
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.
There was still no sign last night of the dispute being resolved.
However, there were signs that if the INO and PNA nurses get a 35-hour week, other staff in the health sector, including childcare workers, will seek a similar arrangement.
Kevin Callinan, national secretary of Impact's health and welfare division, said everybody was keeping a close eye on the nurses' claim for a 35-hour week. This included childcare workers represented by Impact who currently work a 39-hour week.
He also confirmed a decision would be made next month on whether to ballot 27,000 Impact health service workers on industrial action. These workers, who range from administrative staff to speech and language therapists, decided last February to give the HSE three months to address a range of issues affecting their day-to-day working conditions and promised if progress wasn't made a ballot for industrial action would be on the cards. Mr Callinan said there had not been much progress since then but he pointed out that there was still one month to go.
Meanwhile, the INO and PNA have sought a meeting with Siptu to discuss its claim for a 35-hour week for thousands of other staff, including porters, in the health sector. But Dave Hughes, deputy general secretary of the INO, stressed the emphasis of the meeting would be on keeping a good working relationship with Siptu. "What we are trying to do is agree we are not going to undermine each other's position," he said.
He added that the INO and PNA nurses have the stamina and patience for a long industrial dispute if necessary.
Members of both unions will stage a protest at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dublin this evening when Minister for Health Mary Harney attends a function there. In a statement they said it was no longer acceptable for her "to shirk her responsibility with regard to the resolution of this dispute".
Ms Harney has said nurses must pursue pay claims through benchmarking and that any reduction in their working week must be cost neutral. Further one-hour work stoppages are planned for tomorrow at St James's Hospital, Dublin; St Patrick's Psychiatric Hospital, Dublin; Portlaoise General Hospital; Laois/Offaly mental health services; Ennis General Hospital and Clare mental health services.