Doctors at the Mater Hospital in Dublin have voted unanimously for strike action because they are owed £250,000 in arrears of overtime.
Strike action is expected to be served later today for October 14th. A similar result is expected when the votes of non-consultant hospital doctors at St Colmcille's hospital are counted next Monday.
These are among a series of local strike ballots being held by the Irish Medical Organisation of NCHDs over unpaid overtime, poor accommodation and related issues.
Coming at a time of mounting unrest over long working hours, the IMO's director of industrial relations, Mr Fintan Hourihan, described the ballot result at the Mater as "symptomatic of the current level of anger, especially in hospitals breaking national agreements on conditions of employment for doctors".
He called on the Government to follow the example of Britain and agree a special deal for NCHDs "which ensures they are properly rewarded for the excessive hours they work".
The doctors dispute could lead to a situation where two of Dublin's major acute hospitals will find it difficult to provide any level of emergency cover in the event of the national nurses strike going ahead on October 19th.
Later today nursing unions and the Health Service Employers Agency will begin talks on emergency cover during the strike.
In a hard-hitting speech to the Association of Health Boards in Ireland yesterday, the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, said the HSEA "will be demanding comprehensive cover in order to ensure that all emergency situations will be dealt with".
However, SIPTU's national nursing officer, Mr Oliver McDonagh, said the unions would be ensuring the level of cover provided was "not manipulated by the employers".
Given the attitude of the Government, Mr McDonagh said some nurses were reluctant to provide any cover.
"There is no doubt most hospitals will be operating on a skeleton staff, but it is unlikely that there will be anywhere left entirely without cover," he said.
Mr Cowen said "our over-riding concern in any strike must be patient care", and he called on nurses not to engage in industrial action that would "irrevocably" damage social partnership.
Some staff nurses had received increases of almost 26 per cent and some ward sisters up to 37 per cent.
"This is in very stark contrast with the restructuring increases to other groups of workers, which were limited to 5.5 per cent under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work".
He praised "the restraint shown by the rest of the trade union movement in accepting this difference in recognition of the exceptional position of nurses - a restraint which is not likely to extend to increases beyond the recent Labour Court award".
Conceding any more to the nurses would have "a domino effect on other groups sectors or indeed on society as a whole".