Doctors due to continue strike action
Junior doctors are due to resume their strike action at hospitals in Waterford and Tullamore later today.
Talks yesterday at the Labour Relations Commission failed to find a resolution to the dispute and all non-emergency services at the two hospitals will be suspended because of the renewed stoppage.
The Tullamore doctors are due to begin a three-day strike, while the action in Waterford is indefinite.
The dispute began after hospital management changed the rosters for non-consultant doctors, reducing their working hours between 9am and 5pm and increasing their hours outside of these times.
The doctors have argued that their training will be affected because they receive it between 9am and 5pm.
The Irish Patients’ Association has expressed disappointment at the resumption of the strike and called on the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, to intervene in the dispute.
Spokesman Stephen McMahon said: "The total of patients affected by these disputes is going to exceed a thousand patients and we feel that in the absence of the intervention of the Minister for Health, we would be calling on the Taoiseach to actually intervene in this."
A ministerial task-force set up under an agreement between the Irish Medical Organisation and the Government is currently examining how best to reduce junior doctors’ working hours in line with an EU directive.
