Nurses turned their hands to catering, doctors pushed patients' trolleys and senior administration personnel manned the laundry as Waterford Regional Hospital tried to keep essential services operating yesterday.
In an unprecedented move, the hospital management issued an appeal on local radio during the morning for members of the public and patients' relatives to help out in the service areas hit by craft union pickets.
Up to 20 volunteers responded and joined senior nursing and administrative staff in the kitchens and other areas throughout the day. As a result, the hospital managed to keep its 400 in-patients fed and catered for with linen and medicines.
"Patients got their breakfast and lunch thanks to the valiant efforts of the senior nurses and administration staff and volunteers," said Mr Peter Finnegan, the hospital's general manager. "We're coping but it's chaotic."
There were no obvious signs of crisis in the huge hospital at Ardkeen. Out-patient departments were crowded but functioning; elective operations went ahead. However, behind the scenes there were severe pressures as staff were redeployed to fill the shoes of workers who had refused to pass the pickets.
Laundry was a crucial area. The Ardkeen hospital supplies a laundry service for the general hospitals in Cos Wexford and Kilkenny, as well as several geriatric hospitals around the county. "Some senior administration staff had to drive vans to ensure that the laundry got to these outlying areas," Mr Finnegan said.
The hospital had been totally unprepared for the sudden absence of practically its entire non-nursing and trade staff, he added. "We heard as late as 9 p.m. last night that there would be no dispute in any of the hospitals in the South Eastern Health Board region. A major problem was that there was nobody we could contact to find out why the pickets were placed, or to make provision for emergency cover."
He said the episode raised serious questions about the security of the service for the most needy area in the community.
"These are sick people in bed, needing food, needing clothing, needing medicine, needing to be brought to theatre for urgent operations. The fact that staff will not respond to provide even a limited service is beyond comprehension."
Those picketing the hospital's public and staff entrances were in a militant mood. Some carried "Official Dispute" placards of the Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU), others had the word "official" blanked out.
All insisted that, from media reports of the Labour Relations Commission deal reached at the weekend, what had been achieved did not match what their union officials had been mandated to secure.
The most sought after man in Waterford during the morning was the TEEU branch secretary, Mr Paddy Fitzgerald, who was said to be travelling around the various pickets placed outside the hospital and the local authority offices and depots.
Interviewed eventually at a picket line near City Hall, Mr Fitzgerald (59), an electrician with Waterford Corporation, said the pickets were placed "because of frustration" at not knowing what the terms of the LRC deal were.
"The only information we got that the strike was off was on television and in the papers," he said. Communications from union headoffices had been bad. "All the members of the combined unions should have been contacted. Some of the unions were communicated with on this offer, but I received it myself only this morning from congress."
He admitted that the details, which had now become available, of the non-pay elements of the deal changed the picture but he felt that there would still be problems with the flexibility and productivity requirements.
Mr Fitzgerald said the pickets were "official" and cover was available from workers for emergency services. The Ardkeen hospital management had only to approach the picketers and tell them what was needed and they would go in and do it.
He added that, having got in writing the terms of the deal, he would abide by the union's rules. He would tell the picketers that their action was unofficial and he hoped they would disband.
An official of the local authority crafts unions said in Dublin that there was no doubt that the action in Waterford had been unofficial. The new proposals drawn up at the LRC were significantly improved on previous offers and indications from around the country were that craft union members overwhelmingly favoured them.