People in Co Wicklow will be relying on Dublin hospitals in emergencies this weekend because of the refusal of the East Coast Area Health Board to settle a dispute over on-call payments, the Irish Nurses' Organisation has claimed.
It said the health board was unwilling to pay nurses what they were demanding for being on call at night. However, since the nurses had withdrawn their service, the board was paying "10 times" the disputed amount by hiring an ambulance crew for emergency transfers to other hospitals.
A spokesman for the health board said it was available for renewed talks, but what the nurses were demanding was beyond its ability to concede. The spokesman added that the ambulance had been hired "because we have to provide for patient safety".