Nurses in the Day Care Unit at Tallaght Hospital will hold a lunchtime work stoppage tomorrow in protest at what they claim is the misuse of the unit.
The protest will he held at the hospital at lunchtime tomorrow from 12.30 p.m. to 2 p.m.
According to the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO), hospital management is using a contingency plan to ease pressure on the accident and emergency department as an excuse to keep 12 patients indefinitely on trolleys in the Day Care Unit.
As a result, efficiency at the unit has halved and some patients have had planned procedures cancelled up to four times in six months due to accident and emergency admissions being in the unit, the INO claims.
In January, Tallaght was one of a number of hospitals forced to ask the public to stay away from its accident and emergency department unless seriously ill or injured.
The hospital is also one of the major Dublin teaching hospitals - including the Mater, St James's, and Beaumont - that have warned they face a €100 million deficit unless they get more funding this year.
A comment from Tallaght Hospital was not immediately available.