Accident and Emergency nurses will work to rule for St Patrick's weekend regardless of the outcome of talks at the Labour Relations Commission, it emerged last night.
By last night, talks between nurses' unions and health service employers at the Labour Relations Commission had failed to resolve the nurses' dispute which began with a two-hour strike on Wednesday.
Since Wednesday afternoon, nurses have been refusing to perform duties such as applying plasters or intravenous drips except in life-threatening emergencies.
Many hospitals have coped by cancelling planned surgery and other elective treatment so that emergency patients can be treated on the wards.
The situation has been helped by the public response to appeals not to go to A&E departments except in emergencies.
However, hospitals' ability to cope will be tested by the bank holiday weekend.
Six major Dublin hospitals yesterday said they were "concerned that there will be significantly increased pressure on the Adult A&E departments".
The six, Beaumont Hospital, James Connolly Memorial, the Mater, St James's, St Vincent's and Tallaght, called on the nursing unions to defer their work to rule.
But after a day of talks involving the Irish Nurses' Organisation, SIPTU and the Health Service Employers' Agency, there was no sign of a breakthrough last night, with negotiations still continuing.
However, INO general secretary Mr Liam Doran said that even if a package emerged which could be recommended to members, the work to rule could only be called off following a delegate meeting of A&E nurses. Such a meeting could not be held before Tuesday, he said.
The president of the Irish Medical Organisation, Dr Mick Molloy, said he was concerned at the potential impact of the dispute on some planned admissions.
Earlier, the major Dublin hospitals had said they would have to cancel 40 to 60 planned admissions every day if the dispute continued into next week.
"The potential of this dispute will lead to lengthening waiting lists for many elective procedures, which will have greater consequences for patients the longer the dispute continues," Dr Molloy said. He called again for separate elective and emergency beds in hospitals.
He said the work to rule meant fewer than 200 doctors were having to do some of the work which would otherwise be done by more than 800 A&E nurses. "The volume of work to be done can be overwhelming," he said.
The IMO did not wish to undermine industrial action by nursing colleagues but in some "semi-emergency" cases they had to perform ECGs and other tasks because there was nobody else to do it. Nurses were co-operating fully in relation to life-threatening cases.
Meanwhile, there has been little improvement in hospital waiting lists, according to figures released yesterday evening by the Minister for Health and Children .
There were 26,126 people waiting for elective treatment at the end of December, figures released yesterday evening show.
This represents a decrease of 219 on the September figures and a 6 per cent reduction compared to the previous December.
Mr Martin said he was confident "that the measures announced in the new health strategy, such as increasing bed capacity and the new Treatment Purchase Fund, will result in significant reductions in waiting times for public patients." The Treatment Purchase Fund will pay for public patients to be treated in private hospitals.