The threat of a national hospital doctors' dispute in September remains despite a more conciliatory tone yesterday from the Irish Medical Organisation.
Yesterday afternoon the IMO said it was suspending industrial action at Waterford General Hospital until Tuesday.
This, according to the Irish Patients' Association, will allow outpatient appointments and surgery for 303 patients to go ahead on Monday.
However, the Health Service Employers' Agency was pessimistic about the longer-term outlook.
"They have suspended it before," said the HSEA's head of industrial relations, Mr Brendan Mulligan.
He said the Irish Medical Organisation was still saying it wanted the rosters at the centre of the dispute to be suspended before it will go into talks.
The South Eastern Health Board, which manages the hospital, welcomed the suspension of the dispute until Tuesday. It called on the IMO to agree to refer it to the Labour Relations Commission "without preconditions, as a matter of urgency".
The IMO said it had suspended the action "as a gesture of goodwill and in the interest of patient care."
"We are urging the Health Board, in the interests of patient welfare, that they confirm their willingness to suspend these disputed rosters and operate the nationally agreed 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. roster period pending the outcome of third-party discussions," said Mr Fintan Hourihane, the IMO director of industrial relations.
"In the event that the board cannot confirm its willingness to temporarily suspend the disputed rosters, full-scale industrial action will resume on Tuesday 13th August 2002 at Waterford Regional Hospital."
Next Tuesday a three-day dispute also begins at Tullamore General Hospital and a ballot for a national dispute is under way. That ballot will take two to three weeks to complete.
The Labour Party's health spokeswoman, Ms Liz McManus, called on the Minister for Health and Children, Mr Martin, to intervene. "The issues at the heart of this industrial dispute are extremely complex, and they can only be resolved by discussion and negotiation," she said.
"The Labour Court is due to adjudicate on some of the issues involved next month, but a nationwide strike is likely to be under way by then."
The Irish Patients' Association welcomed the suspension of industrial action, particularly for the 303 patients (25 surgical cases and 278 with outpatient appointments) who would have been directly affected on Monday.
The association called for a programme of "catch-up" for the 195 patients whose appointments were cancelled this week.
It said it hoped the gesture "is the first of just a few steps for all the parties concerned towards resolution of this issue".
Since Thursday 136 outpatient and 53 surgical procedures were cancelled but clinics such as oncology services, including breast checks and chemotherapy treatments, went ahead yesterday .
Dialysis and maternity outpatient clinics also went ahead as normal as did accident and emergency services.
The action by NCHDs in Waterford - who employers say earn an average of €45,000 a year in overtime payments - began on Thursday and follows a two-day strike in the hospital's paediatric unit last week over the introduction of new rosters that the health board says are designed to reduce the hours worked by doctors.
The IMO says new rosters mean part of a doctor's basic week would be worked outside normal daytime hours, when training and development opportunities were at their greatest .
The HSEA has rejected this and said the NCHDs were really seeking to protect overtime payments for any work done after 5 p.m. Monday to Thursday or 4 p.m. on Friday, regardless of any other hours worked. This has been rejected by the IMO which says it is concerned with quality of training and patient care.