MORE THAN 16,000 people face having their hospital appointments or procedures deferred next week as a result of the planned national strike in the public service.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) said yesterday that planned procedures for part of Monday and all of Tuesday are to be postponed. Tens of thousands of health service staff are expected to take part in the one-day stoppage on Tuesday in protest at Government proposals to cut pay.
However, trade union Impact said last night it and the Irish Nurses’ Organisation had withdrawn strike notice at the Mercy hospital in Cork after hospital management invoked its “major incident plan” because of flooding.
Under the plan, all patients are to be moved from the hospital because of flooding and the health and safety risks associated with contaminated water and exposed electricity cables. Cork Impact official Hilary Kelleher said the withdrawal of strike notice was “an extraordinary measure for an extraordinary situation”.
At a press conference yesterday dealing with the impact of the strike nationwide, Dr Joe Devlin, of the HSE’s directorate of quality and clinical care, said the level of services in place on Tuesday would be equivalent approximately to those in operation on a bank holiday or over a weekend.
However, he said “substantial numbers of patients” were going to have appointments, procedures and operations postponed. People concerned were being notified.
Dr Devlin said all out-patient appointments and day-case procedures scheduled for Tuesday would be deferred. Operations scheduled for Tuesday, with certain exemptions, would also be postponed. Some elective operations scheduled for Monday would also be cancelled.
Exempted areas included intensive care, coronary care, high-dependency units, maternity services and planned treatment for malignant disease. Chemotherapy units would operate and patients would receive dialysis. Burns and neurosurgical units would continue to function on Tuesday as would phlebotomy services at Our Lady’s hospital in Crumlin.
