The president of the Irish Haematology Association, Prof Shaun McCann, has warned that treatment for leukaemia patients cannot continue for more than a day or two in the event of the nurses' strike going ahead.
Prof McCann is one of a number of consultants in the Irish Haematology Association who have written to The Irish Times appealing to "the Government and the nurses to begin discussions immediately to settle this dispute".
He stressed yesterday that he was speaking as head of the association in making what is the harshest estimate so far by a leading medical practitioner of the likely impact of the nurses' strike. He said that at any one time there might be 12 to 15 in-patients being treated for leukaemia at the national centre in St James's Hospital, Dublin, where he is based, and another eight to 12 in Cork and Galway.
"The association is extremely concerned for the welfare of patients," he said. "These patients are curable if we have fully optimal treatment available." However, the medical staff "can't physically do what nurses do. The Government needs to know, and the people need to know, that we cannot continue for more than a day or two if there is a strike."
The Irish Patients' Association and the National Association for the Mentally Handicapped of Ireland (NAMHI) have joined the growing number of organisations calling on the Nursing Alliance unions and Government to reach a negotiated settlement.
In a letter to the Minister for Health and Children, Mr Cowen, the NAMHI expressed concern for the consequences of a strike. It estimates that 8,000 adults and children will be affected and informed the Minister that in many cases parents are already being asked to take their children home. The Eastern Health Board is meeting on Monday to discuss the dispute. Its chairwoman, Ms Roisin Shortall TD, said a meeting was "absolutely imperative for the country's largest health service provider" and she criticised the Government's failure to engage the nurses in political dialogue.