Doctors in the west of Ireland are being forced to sterilise their surgical instruments or face the prospect of cancelling emergency operations.
The strike committee at Mayo General Hospital has agreed to provide nursing staff for surgical operations, but has refused to clean and sterilise instruments afterwards.
The hospital had a number of pre-prepared sets of surgical equipment in store. However, with the supply of these kits running low, a consultant anaesthetist, Dr Michael Thornton, said they were faced with preparing instruments themselves or cancelling operations.
He said he believed the Castlebar hospital was one of very few in Ireland where the sterile supply department was staffed by nurses. In most other hospitals these departments were serviced by non-medical staff, so the problem did not arise.
Medical personnel decided to carry out the sterilising this week amid concerns that surgical staff might not be in a position to respond to emergencies.
The strike committee had not opposed the medics' decision to do the work.
