Hopes of new talks in the hospital doctors' dispute grew yesterday following a call on both sides from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to resolve their differences.
However, the issue of the suspension of new rosters remained a stumbling block to the resumption of talks, which broke down on Monday.
Three days of industrial action are due to end at the Midland General Hospital in Tullamore today, but in the absence of progress this action will resume on Monday for an indefinite period.
An indefinite period of industrial action is already under way at Waterford Regional Hospital.
By this evening, up to 1,000 patients will have had treatment postponed because of this week's action alone.
The ICTU said in its statement yesterday that it was calling on both sides in the doctors' dispute to "engage in meaningful talks to find a resolution to the matters between them".
It added: "While congress is aware that the issues at the heart of the dispute are complex, their resolution requires the health boards to temporarily set aside the disputed rosters and the IMO to suspend their industrial action in order to allow meaningful discussions to take place."
Last week, the Irish Medical Organisation suspended action until Tuesday of this week and asked for rosters to be suspended to allow talks on the dispute to take place.
Following a weekend invitation from the chief executive officer of the Labour Relations Commission, Mr Kieran Mulvey, the IMO entered talks with the South-Eastern Health Board on Monday morning even though the rosters were still in place. However, the talks broke down almost immediately over the issue of the suspension of rosters.
The Health Service Employers' Agency did not attend the talks, saying later that it saw them as involving a local dispute at Waterford Regional. It said that it would attend future talks if the IMO thought this would be helpful.
The rosters, introduced in a number of health board hospitals, mean that part of the basic working week of a non-consultant hospital doctor would take place outside the current basic hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Fridays.
The IMO maintains this means doctors will miss out on training opportunities during busy daytime hours. The employers say the doctors are trying to protect their overtime payments.
Earlier this week, the Minister for Health and Children, Mr Martin, appealed to all parties to return to talks at the LRC, describing the IMO action as "disproportionate" to the issue.
Mr Martin said that flexibility would be shown in the event of the talks resuming.