Midwives and nurses at maternity hospitals in Cork are meeting to consider the latest proposals from HSE management to try to break the deadlock over the opening of Cork University Maternity Hospital.
The new hospital was due to open last Saturday.
However, that was postponed after local midwives and nurses voted against transferring to the new facility because of a row over staffing levels.
The HSE has set this Saturday as the deadline for commissioning the maternity hospital and says if it does not open then, no further attempts will be made to open it this year.
That will mean 200 people employed to work there will have their contracts terminated.
