Health service unions are meeting at lunchtime today to formulate a response to the Health Service Executive's decision to extend its ban on recruitment for at least another month.
Unions claim the ban will lead to longer waiting times for patients and cause further hardship in the health service. They also say it was imposed by the HSE without consultation contrary to procedures laid down in the national partnership deal.
HSE statement
Officials from the Irish Nurses Ogranisation (INO), the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), Siptu and Impact, which represent most of 100,000 health sector employees, are due to meet in the INO headquarters in Dublin.
Unions say all options, including industrial action, will be on the table at the meeting. But if action is considered, the staff they represent will have to be balloted first.
Meanwhile the HSE has confirmed that a number of surgical and gynaecological procedures at Cavan General Hospital have been postponed due to the recruitment freeze.
The HSE said consultant booked leave would not be replaced by locum staff other than to support emergency on call cover as part of the hospital's financial break-even plan.
The move has resulted in the postponement of 18 minor-intermediate surgeries over two weeks, the HSE said.
No major surgical cases or cancer cases have been deferred.
"This cost containment measure has been taken in order to realign our services to existing levels of service and within our allocated budget," it said in a statement.
On Monday, the HSE decided to continue with its recruitment freeze, which began last month, in a bid to reduce its financial deficit, which is currently running at over €200 million.
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