Sick children and cancer patients should be exempted from the effects of the nurses' strike, given the progress which has been made in finding a resolution to the dispute, the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, said last night.
"I think that would be a reasonable suggestion at this stage," he said, after concerns were raised about care of very ill children at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin.
But the Irish Cancer Society said it opposed categorising patients. Its chief executive, Mr Barry Dempsey, said that while in the short term, exempting cancer patients "might give us some comfort, I fear it would create a scaffold which would allow people to stall for longer and ultimately prolong the dispute".
He noted the longer the dispute went on the more money health employers saved. "With the nurses fuelled by their convictions and the employers fuelled by savings I'm not sure that categorising patients would do anything but make things worse."
He added that singling out cancer patients amounted to "a kind of racism" which ignored other needy cases like cardiovascular or neurological patients.
Mr Cowen said he was "continually concerned about the need to provide contingency emergency cover" to ensure patients did not suffer. Where there was still concern about the degree of emergency cover in place, the local strike committees should review the level of care being provided.
On Thursday, the medical board of Our Lady's Hospital issued a statement, saying the strike had compromised the care of seriously ill children, especially those in intensive-care units. The board said it was exploring all options to improve conditions, including the transfer of patients outside the State.
"There should be no situation where care for these particularly vulnerable patients should be in any doubt," Mr Cowen said. He was optimistic that substantial progress towards ending the dispute would be made within the next 24 to 48 hours.
"I hope the outcome of these talks, which began at 2 p.m. today, will enable people to look at the tactical relevance of continuing with a strike in a situation where a process is in place which provides a non-confrontational approach to the resolution of the dispute," he said.
"Thankfully we have now got agreement on a process that respects the Government's overriding concern to ensure any solution will not have wider implications and compromise social partnership," he added.