The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) has threatened to go to the Labour Court over proposals made by the North Eastern Health Board to reorganise surgery at Louth County Hospital.
The dispute involves plans for the creation of a joint department of surgery between the hospital in Dundalk and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
The board says consultant surgeons based at the Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda would be on call to attend the Louth Hospital, 25 miles away, after 5 p.m. in the evening from July.
The INO is opposed to the proposals and warned the North Eastern Health Board that it would contact the Labour Court tomorrow if the NEHB did not withdraw the plans within 24 hours.