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Cork Kerry Community Healthcare has preparations in place for the possibility of industrial action by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) continuing tomorrow (Tuesday February 5) and Thursday (February 7).

Unless the dispute is resolved at national level, there will unfortunately be some disruption to services tomorrow, and we are preparing for a similar level of disruption on Thursday.

Community services affected on Tuesday February 5th will include:

· Many public day centres for older people or people with disabilities will not open.

· Clinics at Primary Care Centres and health centres where nurses participate will be cancelled.

· Routine nursing services at health centres will not take place.

· All day hospitals or out-patient appointments in community hospitals/units will be cancelled.

· Non-essential nursing home visits will not take place.

Palliative Care Services will operate as normal tomorrow and Thursday. Essential services in the home, and health centres such urgent wound care and screening of new born children where essential, will take place.

Some community services will operate as normal, including palliative care. Some essential services in the home, and screening of new born children, where essential, will take place.

Residential services (eg community hospitals and acute mental health units, disability centres) will remain open tomorrow and care will be provided to residents. However, admission to community hospitals will be affected, and this may have an impact on people due to receive respite this week.

Those affected have been notified of tomorrow’s cancellations. We will re-schedule any appointments or procedures that are cancelled as soon as possible, and we apologise to all those affected for the disruption.

We are engaging with the INMO locally so that the impact of the industrial action can be managed as well as possible. This ongoing interaction between local management and strike committees is focused on ensuring the impact of the action for those using our services is minimised.

We expect the impact on Thursday to be similar to that outlined above, and we will continue to update those using our services through national newspapers, hse.ie and media statements.