Patients living outside the Dublin area are likely to bear the brunt of the planned strike by hospital consultants.
The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), which represents about 670 consultants, has a high percentage of anaesthetists, specialists in geriatric medicine and psychiatrists as members.
The strike's greatest impact is likely to be on surgical services in Cork, Galway and other regional hospitals.
Scheduled to start on March 14th, the strike follows a long- drawn-out dispute over who is responsible for the cost of historical malpractice liabilities. The Medical Defence Union (MDU), a British insurer, has withdrawn cover from 26 consultants in the Republic, leaving them and their patients potentially open to multimillion euro malpractice claims.
Consultants who are members of the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association (IHCA) will be not be going on strike, following the association's acceptance of guarantees from the Government that no patient and no consultant will be left uncovered in the event of a successful malpractice action. Both sides have agreed to take joint legal action against the MDU. The IHCA represents 1,800 consultants; some 500 consultants have dual membership of the IMO and IHCA.
In a letter to Minister for Health Mary Harney yesterday, IMO industrial relations director Fintan Hourihan said the organisation was anxious to address a number of issues with her.
He has asked for clarification of a letter from the secretary general to the Government, Dermot McCarthy, which stated that no consultant would be left without cover "in all reasonable circumstances and in accordance with the law".
Mr Hourihan said the IMO was also unclear what the Department of Health plans to do in the event that legal action against the MDU does not succeed.
A spokesman for Ms Harney said she hoped the IMO would call off its industrial action and join with the IHCA to put pressure on the MDU. She hoped doctors would continue their tradition of not going on strike.
The Minister and IMO leaders have agreed to meet for further discussions.
The IMO has instructed doctors to cease all routine services, including outpatient, elective and day-care procedures from March 14th. Consultants' private rooms are to remain closed.
The organisation's general practitioner and non-consultant hospital doctor committees have issued guidelines to family and junior hospital doctors, asking them not to undertake work normally carried out by consultants.