Ten operations scheduled to have been carried out today at Kerry General Hospital in Tralee have been postponed because of the on-going dispute between the Health Service Executive and 38 electricians over work practice changes.
The operations were postponed by medical staff at the hospital because of concerns over patient safety.
The acute hospitals affected by this dispute are spread across the south of the country in counties Kerry, Cork, Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford, Carlow and Kilkenny.
However, Kerry General Hospital has been worst affected so far.
The HSE claims that two electricians at Kerry General are refusing to provide emergency, so-called life-or-death cover, and so one day-long operation scheduled for yesterday and ten others scheduled for today have been postponed.
The electricians' union, the TEEU, insists that all hospitals involved in the dispute are being provided with emergency cover and it says this is being strictly enforced by union officials as part of the official dispute.
The TEEU is appealing to the HSE to agree to binding arbitration by an agreed third party and says a basis exists for the resolution of the dispute on this basis.
However, the Labour Court and the Labour Relations Commission have both intervened in this dispute already and it remains doubtful or at best unclear as of now whether either of those avenues will re-open to the parties.
