A quiet day at casualty but hectic on the wards. That was the response of hospital consultants and doctors to the first day of the nurses' strike.
Admissions to accident and emergency were down by about 30 per cent as the public heeded advice to make their GPs their first port of call.
"It was extraordinarily quiet. There were seemingly no major problems in doctor-nurse relations or in patient care," said Mr Finbarr Fitzpatrick, general secretary of the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association (IHCA).
However, he warned: "We have had one lucky day and we better be careful our luck doesn't run out. The longer this goes on the greater the risk of something wrong happening."
Consultants were forced to take up duties normally carried out by nurses such as washing and sterilising instruments. Technicians who also used to carry out such tasks refused to do so in solidarity with their striking colleagues.
Certain duties went undone, such as the counting of beds and census of patients, which should normally take place each morning. Mr Fitzpatrick said nurses were also reportedly keeping fewer notes than usual, which "we would have worries about".
In a bid to avoid legal actions, consultants have been advised by the IHCA to inform patients that any reduction in the quality of care is the responsibility of hospital management.
The strike has had a more immediate impact on hospital doctors (formerly known as junior doctors), many of whom will work double and treble shifts in the coming days to cover services withdrawn by nurses.
Dr Mick Molloy, chairman of the IMO's hospital doctor committee, said some hospitals appeared to be coping better than others.
Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Crumlin has tripled the number of hospital doctors on duty. Such doctors who came on duty early yesterday have been asked to stay overnight and work through until 7-8 p.m. tonight.
"There has been a huge increase in our workloads," said one doctor at the Dublin hospital. "The biggest thing has been the intravenous antibiotics which the nurses normally would have done. And then we're forced to answer the phones as well. It just can't last."
Dr Molloy said the strike highlighted the fact that nurses were carrying out duties which should normally be done by others. "If nurses are engaged in highly-trained duties like putting in drips, taking blood, escorting patients to accident and emergency, there is no reason for them to be answering phones as well. Someone else should be doing that job."
He added that the pressures on hospital doctors would be most acute at night, when nursing cover was at its lowest. "The problems at night will become more critical, maybe not on the first day but on the third or fourth as people are pushed to the limit."
