Hospital managers will this week begin cancelling surgery appointments for 3,000 patients. They will also earmark a further 3,000 patients who will be discharged ahead of the start of the threatened nurses' strike.
Although the nurses' industrial action is not provisionally sanctioned to begin until October 19th, elective surgery appointments will be cancelled and beds emptied from October 11th.
Health administrators will begin writing to patients this week informing them of the cancellation of their operations. However, it was unclear last night if all elective surgery would be postponed as in some areas management and strike committees have not yet met to agree which patients will be emergencies.
Over 142,400 elective surgery admissions were made State-wide last year and a further 225,000 elective procedures were undertaken on a day-care basis.
The Dublin acute hospitals would be hardest hit, according to the chief executive of the Health Service Employers' Agency (HSEA), Mr Gerard Barry. This was because many were national referral centres.
He said the HSEA was concerned at the situation where local hospital management and strike committees would decide the staffing cover for each unit. "In the absence of a national contingency plan there is a danger of placing patients' lives at risk."
The level of cancellations varies across the State. The North Eastern Health Board is still consulting strike committees. At this time of year it would undertaken 180 to 200 elective procedures weekly.
In the Midlands Health Board area, the board's three hospitals in Mullingar, Tullamore and Portlaoise would undertake an average of 109 elective surgery procedures a week and a further 49 procedures on an out-patient basis. Strike committees have not yet met with hospital management so it not known how many of these patients will be treated in the next fortnight.
A Mid Western Health Board spokesman said the situation was being reviewed on a hospital by hospital basis. Limerick Regional Hospital was drawing up lists of out-patients who required treatment during the industrial action.
Both the Southern Health Board and the Eastern Health Board were in negotiation with strike committees yesterday and declined to comment on the number of elective procedures which would be affected.