At least 49 patients who were due to attend hospitals across the State today for a range of treatments and consultations have been told to stay at home as a result of work stoppages by nurses.
Nurses who are members of the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses' Association (PNA) will stop work for an hour from 11am at a number of hospitals and mental health facilities as part of their ongoing campaign for better pay and conditions.
Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, said it has had to cancel 17 outpatient appointments as a result.
Kerry General Hospital said it had to cancel 10 surgical follow-up outpatient appointments.
In the west, Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe said it had postponed 14 outpatient appointments and seven day-surgery cases. One patient due to attend for an elective procedure at Mayo General Hospital has also been put off.
A number of other hospitals targeted for stoppages today, including the Mater in Dublin, said no procedures had been cancelled.
Dave Hughes of the INO said cancer, intensive care and coronary care units had been exempted from the stoppages.
Angela Fitzgerald of the HSE's National Hospital Office said that when the work stoppages lengthened to two and three hours next week, thousands of patients would have surgery and outpatient appointments cancelled. "In some cases you could have major surgery deferred," she said.
More than 40,000 nurses are seeking a 10.6 per cent pay rise and a 35-hour week. At present they work 39 hours a week.
They began industrial action in the form of a work to rule almost five weeks ago.
Talks between their unions and health service management to try to resolve the dispute collapsed earlier this week.
Nurses picketed outside the Mansion House in Dublin yesterday when Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and senior Fianna Fáil Ministers attended the launch of their party's general election manifesto. The nurses warned that if the Government parties did not accede to their demands it would cost them votes on election day.
Opposition parties, including Labour, the Greens and Sinn Féin, have said they support the nurses' claim for a 35-hour week and say they should be given a date for its implementation.
However, Fine Gael health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey said that while he would negotiate with the nurses on their claim for a 35-hour week in return for changed work practices, he would not say in advance of the election if he would concede to their demand for a 35-hour week.