More than 300 outpatient appointments and medical procedures scheduled to take place in hospitals today have been cancelled as a result of work stoppages by nurses, writes Martin Wall, Industry Correspondent.
Members of the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses' Association (PNA) are to stop work for three hours at Beaumont Hospital, Naas General Hospital and Sligo General Hospital as part of their campaign for improved pay and conditions.
Mental health services at Portrane in north Dublin, Kildare and Sligo will also be hit by three-hour stoppages by nurses.
Beaumont Hospital said last night that 100 outpatient appointments, 15 operations, 70 day-case procedures and 50 blood tests had been cancelled.
The Health Service Executive said that 24 outpatient appointments and 23 procedures in Sligo as well as 20 outpatient appointments and 10 procedures in Naas had been deferred.
Meanwhile, proposals by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern on Friday for an international expert to arbitrate in the dispute are expected to be put to the unions in the coming days.
INO general secretary Liam Doran yesterday said that the idea was "interesting" but that the unions would need to hear more at first hand. The executives of both unions are today to review the campaign of industrial action, which has been under way for seven weeks.
The unions are seeking 35-hour working week and a 10 per cent pay increase.
Mr Doran said that one of the main issues under consideration would be the plans by management to deduct 13 per cent in pay from nurses who continued to participate in a work to rule after next Friday.
As part of the work to rule, nurses are refusing to deal with non-essential telephone calls or to carry out clerical or IT duties.
Management has said that nurses received previous pay increases in return for co-operation with technology and other reforms.
Mr Ahern indicated last Friday his unease with the HSE plan to deduct pay from nurses. However, HSE sources said that the plan would go ahead and that there had been no political intervention to halt the move.
Some political sources suggested that if the unions accepted the Taoiseach's proposals, there could be further moves to have both the work to rule and the pay deductions suspended.
Other sources indicated that several weeks ago, Minister for Health Mary Harney had put forward similar proposals to those of the Taoiseach but that these had not been accepted by the unions.