The Irish Association for Emergency Medicine has asked that only those with a need for emergency treatment attend emergency departments at this time in light of the cyber attack on the HSE.
The Health Service Executive was last week forced to shut down all of its IT systems following a "significant" ransomware attack, which focused on accessing data stored on central servers.
The IAEM said that serious consideration should be given to attending other services not affected by the absence of information and communications technology due to the cyber attack.
It said as patient administration systems are not available, patients should bring any information of use with them to assist staff in delivering care, including medication lists, and medical record number (MRN), or patient chart number (PCN), if these are available.
The HSE has said many of its emergency departments are very busy and patients requiring non-urgent care should expect significant delays.
Hospital emergency departments are relying on manual processes for a lot of their work at the moment.
The HSE is asking the public to please consider all care options in advance, including Injury Units, GP out-of-hours and their local pharmacy.
It comes as the Vice President of the Irish Hospital Consultant Association and Consultant Paediatric Radiologist has said the impact on patients of the continuing fallout from last Friday's cyber attack on the Health Service Executive "cannot be overstated".
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, Dr Gabrielle Colleran said that "there is no comparison" between the situation faced by radiology now and that which those working in the specialty experienced throughout the pandemic.
"This is so much worse," she said. "There really is no comparison. At least during Covid we could still provide safe care to people.
"In the current situation, where we don't have access to prior imaging, prior reports, clinical information, and we're relying on verbally contacting people, it's just so much riskier. The challenge of it cannot be overstated."
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Challenges 'will undoubtedly mount' this week after IT attack
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Dr Colleran said that for children who have had cancer surgery, who present with headaches, it is a "critical component" of the doctor's work, to be able to compare to previous imagery to check for obstructions.
She said this is the most challenging set of circumstances in her 19 years working in medicine.
Dr Colleran said colleagues are having to manually transcribe notes to laptops to try and use in standalone software, which she said this is "majorly risky" for patients.
"My colleagues, medical scientists and consultants who work in laboratories, they're having to manually transcribe results from analysers to standalone laptops, and then having to try and convey results.
"This is majorly risky for patients for example who need blood transfusions, where you need to be able to access prior results for comparison, and to be able to plan.
"In radiology, we have to be able to compare to prior scans. That is a critical part of our work in looking for change, and we are locked out of systems."
Cyber attack will have 'enormous' effect
The Chief Medical Scientist with the National Maternity Hospital and spokesperson with the Academy of Clinical Science and Laboratory Medicine has said the cumulative effect of this cyber attack is going to be "enormous".
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Marie Culliton has said the amount of work coming into laboratories needs to be reduced to that which is essential to treat patients today.
She said "if we are overloaded with other specimens that are not urgent, then we can't concentrate on giving the urgent ones the extra attention that they need at the moment."
The other problem is the samples do not last forever, she said.
If a sample for a full blood count cannot be measured within 24 hours the sample is then useless, she said.
She said if it is for coagulation, she has four hours to analyse it.
If the samples being taken cannot be measured within the time frame, they have to discard them and patients have to come again, Dr Culliton said.
Full maternity services to resume at the Rotunda Hospital
Some gynaecology services are also being restored this week.
The hospital said it will contact patients directly and hopes to return to full services next week.
It said that if patients are due a maternity or paediatric appointment for the rest of the week they should come in as originally scheduled.
