PARAMEDICS have agreed to provide emergency cover in all areas of the health services where they operate. All the indications are that they intend today's strike as a demonstration of intent rather than as action to hurt the public. However, their mood could harden if the strike becomes protracted.
The two largest groups of paramedics involved in the dispute are physiotherapists and social workers. Physiotherapists have promised to continue treating post-operative patients, especially for those undergoing cardiac and orthopaedic surgery.
Other groups such as speech therapists, occupational therapists and orthoptists (eye therapists), will also provide emergency cover. But, by definition, most people with whom they deal are not emergency cases.
Obviously, speech therapists will treat a patient recovering from a larynxectomy (removal of the voice box) in hospital, but there is unlikely to be follow-up therapy when the patient is discharged. A similar situation may arise with stroke victims. Of course, the backlog of children with communication disorders awaiting treatment will lengthen during the dispute.
The National Rehabilitation Centre in Dun Laoghaire is expected to continue providing a high level of cover but, again, patients discharged from acute hospitals are likely to lose the facility of home visits by occupational therapists to see if their house needs modification or new fittings. Most patients with eye disorders will probably just have to wait longer for treatment by orthoptists or doctors, as a result of the dispute.
Cover by social workers appears even more problematic. There is already a backlog in many areas. Social workers dealing with accident victims and those providing emergency intervention on behalf of children at risk will be available to do what's needed", as one source put it.
But many work in situations where the degree of urgency is less clear cut, for instance, arranging accommodation for patients being" discharged from hospital who have no family support, or people in need of counselling because of drugs abuse, HIV infection or other serious conditions.
In the area of mental handicap the level of cover for over 6,000 people in long-term residential care was still being negotiated late yesterday. Management effectively wants house parents to continue overnight care in homes, while IMPACT wants it withdrawn in many instances.