Up to 15,000 patients could be affected by the planned strike by non-consultant hospital doctors next Tuesday.
Most hospitals are likely to cancel elective or non-urgent admissions as well as outpatient clinic appointments for the day. However, some services may continue.
Notification of cancellations are expected to be given to patients in the next day or two.
The HSE is expected to operate a Sunday service in public hospitals.
On an average weekday between 3,000 and 3,500 elective patients are treated in public hospitals, while there are between 11,000 and 12,000 appointments in out- patient departments.
Last month, a ballot for industrial action by the Irish Medical Organisation produced a 97 per cent vote in favour among the 56 per cent of junior doctors who cast votes in a dispute over achieving a maximum 24- hour shift in hospitals.
Meanwhile, the president of the Irish Association of Directors of Nursing and Midwifery, Avilene Casey, told delegates at their conference in Kilkenny that the health service was facing a "crisis period" because of restructuring, reconfiguration, outsourcing and cuts.
Great opportunity
However, she said this could also be a time of great opportunity if everyone in the services was insightful and visionary enough to seize those opportunities.
Challenges she identified for nursing directors and staff included the continued growth in the elderly population; the mix of staff and the ratio of nurses to healthcare assistants; and societal changes as people demanded better access to health information.
The director general of the HSE told the conference that the debate about the health service in Ireland had been “focused on money” for too long and needed to place “quality” as the top priority .
Tony O’Brien told 150 directors of nursing that the aim of all in the health sector was to ensure we had a health and social care system that operated “to a more balanced scorecard”.