Health services in Belfast face major disruption as about 1,000 health workers stage a one-day strike after a death threat was issued to a member of staff.
Union chiefs insisted their members stop work in disgust at the letter claiming to be from loyalist paramilitaries. A bullet is also understood to have been enclosed in the package which was delivered last Wednesday.
But management at the North and West Belfast Health and Social Services Trust condemned the decision to press ahead with the 24-hour stoppage.
Director of Operations Mr Noel Rooney expressed sympathy for the victim but said the protest should have taken another form. "There will be serious disruptions to some of our services because of the full-day action," he said.
The Loyalist Commission, an umbrella organisation that includes representatives from the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force, assured the trust neither of these paramilitary groups was behind the threat.
PA