The Irish Patients' Association has urged all the parties in the nurses' dispute to resume negotiations immediately, "rather than waiting for a national crisis to develop".
Expressing disappointment at the collapse of yesterday's talks, the group's president, Mr Stephen McMahon, said: "They should be sitting around the table from 8 a.m. [today] and making every effort to end this before untold suffering and hardship is caused to patients and carers. At the end of the day, the dignity of the individual is being used and that is inappropriate in any civilised society."
He stressed that the contingency plans negotiated between local strike committees and employers needed to be monitored closely. "There is real concern that some emergency plans will not be as good as others."
The Irish Cancer Society said the strike would cause "enormous hardship" to both patients and carers. Its chief executive, Mr Barry Dempsey, said research showed that carers and relatives of cancer victims tended to suffer more stress than the victims themselves, and this would be worsened by the disruption.
He warned: "Oncology services are already hugely overburdened and the system in place is at capacity. As a result, the effect of any interruption or delay will be exponential. It will take a week or more to catch up for each day lost."
While limited chemotherapy and radiology services will operate in most hospitals for existing cancer patients, new patients will not be catered for at all. This was extremely worrying, Mr Dempsey said, with an average of 50 new cancer patients diagnosed each day.
He also expressed concern that the strike could lead to the postponement of the breast-screening programme due to begin in certain health board areas this year.
