Final details of emergency nursing coverage in the State's acute hospitals will be agreed today, according to the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO).
Most hospital out-patient clinics and services will be deferred or cancelled from today, while accident and emergency departments will deal only with seriously ill or injured patients from tomorrow, if the planned strike goes ahead.
Patients with minor injuries or ailments have been advised by hospitals throughout the State to contact their GPs. Public information phone lines have also been set up in many hospitals.
The extent of emergency cover by nurses' strike committees in the State's 46 acute hospitals will be "fine-tuned" after an assessment of the in-patient population today, said the INO's general secretary, Mr Liam Doran.
Staff numbers in accident and emergency wards of acute hospitals are expected to be reduced to about a third of normal.
Each hospital's strike committee will work from an operations room and liaise with consultants and hospital managers to keep the level of coverage in the hospital under constant review, according to the INO.
Nurses will be put on a three-day roster and will spend half of their eight-hour day shift on the picket line and half in the hospital. If an emergency arises, staff will be called off the picket lines to work, the INO said.
Pickets outside hospitals will begin at 8 a.m. tomorrow and are due to be called off at about 6 p.m. Strike-cover staff on night duty will work their usual 12-hour shifts. Other staff will be on standby during the night in case they are needed, according to the INO.
The INO has stressed that the picket lines are not intended to prevent patients or deliveries entering hospitals.
Mr Doran said he was satisfied that the "emergency needs of patients will be met from tomorrow morning by the nursing care that we are planning to provide."
In the event of a major incident such as a rail accident, staff would be immediately taken off the picket lines until the crisis was over, he added.
The State's 1,200 hospital consultants and 2,500 junior doctors will carry out duties normally undertaken by nurses such as administering injections, carrying out stitching and monitoring patients.
Nursing staff will provide assistance to doctors only in emergency cases, which will be categorised by the consultant in charge.
Mr Finbarr Fitzpatrick, the general secretary of the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association, said its members had been advised not to work to the point of exhaustion where their clinical judgment could be compromised.
Details of medical coverage will be announced today for Dublin's five main accident and emergency hospitals, Beaumont, St James's, the Mater, St Vincent's and Tallaght.
All five hospitals have cancelled or postponed most out-patient clinics and services, with a variety of exceptions, including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, fracture clinics and dialysis.
The Rotunda, the Coombe, and National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street, Dublin, will continue to provide the core service of delivering babies, but patients are likely to be discharged earlier than normal if the dispute proceeds (for further details see display advertisement on page 5).
A spokeswoman for the Eastern Health Board said it would set up a help-line tomorrow morning for information about all its services.
The five hospitals in the North Eastern Health Board area have cancelled out-patient services and have set up a public information line on 1-800-323332, which will be open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the duration of the strike.
This covers information about Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda as well as the Navan, Cavan, Meath and Dundalk hospitals.
In the Mid Western Health Board area, most out-patient appointments will be cancelled from today, along with all public health nursing services apart from emergency and essential services.
Hospitals in this area have set up freefone helplines, staffed from 9.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. from Monday to Friday.
The numbers are: Regional Hospital Limerick, Regional Maternity Hospital and Regional Orthopaedic Hospital, tel 1800200300; Limerick community, mental health, elderly and other services, tel 1800-200465; Ennis General Hospital and Clare community, mental health, elderly and other services, tel 1800-200025; Nenagh General Hospital and North Tipperary community, mental health, elderly and other services, tel 1800-200237.