The meeting between unions representing over 100,000 health staff and the Health Service Executive on the recent employment freeze has been adjourned until 25 March.
Des Kavanagh of the Psychiatric Nurses Association said the health service was in free-fall and that the HSE needed to get real.
He said the current cutbacks were bringing the service back to the way it was before the 1990s.
The HSE said that it fully accepted the recent Labour Court recommendation that it must consult with health unions in future before planned cutbacks.
The meeting was supposed to discuss how the HSE's €300m savings plan will impact patient services.
Last week, HSE Chief Executive Professor Brendan Drumm warned that some of the smaller Accident and Emergency units may have to close, if spending cannot be brought under control.
