Patient advice:Patients have been advised not to attend hospital A&E units unless absolutely necessary.
The advice was issued by the Health Service Executive (HSE)last evening, which said it expected the dispute to result in the delayed discharge of patients and, consequently, to longer waiting times in A&E.
Patients should, therefore, attend a GP instead.
It also said patients should attend hospitals for routine appointments unless their hospital has contacted them in advance to cancel the appointment.
Gerry O'Dwyer, chairman of the nurses dispute steering group in the HSE, asked people not to ring hospitals in advance about appointments as phone lines were getting jammed and in general nurses were not answering phones.
"We are asking people to come in the normal way.
"Please don't ring because your phone call may not be answered . . . It's just going to cause further problems to an already congested system. And we would ask relatives as well not to be ringing in, maybe to make some other arrangements, because we are under pressure in terms of answering phones on the various units and wards."
At a local level, individual hospitals have been putting their own arrangements in place.
Tallaght hospital in Dublin has set up a freephone number (1800 270 170) which people can use during the dispute. Lines will operate daily from 9am to 4pm. The public can also call the main hospital telephone number.
Patients of this hospital have also been told they should contact the admissions office at (01) 414 2800 the day of their planned admission to make sure it has not been postponed.
A spokesman for St James's and St Vincent's hospitals said: "We are requesting that inquiries regarding the welfare of in-patients be kept to a minimum as these cannot be dealt with at ward level.
"Please ring the hospital's main switch telephone number and your call will be dealt with appropriately."