Some cardiac surgeries are expected to be cancelled tomorrow due to a strike by profusionists in the public health system

Now some cardiac surgeries are expected to be cancelled tomorrow due to a strike by profusionists in the public health system. Profusionists are specialised hospital workers who operate machines that take over from the heart and lungs during operations to keep blood flowing. They're in dispute with the HSE overpay and our work and technology correspondent Brian O'Donovan can tell us more about what's going on. Brian, what level of disruption will be caused for patients tomorrow? Well, just an absolute waiting for a detailed statement from the HSE, this lunchtime breaking down exactly how many surgeries will be cancelled tomorrow. But union sources are telling me that around 14 open heart surgeries will be cancelled nationally in the five cardiac centres in the matter. St. James's, Crumlin, Corke University Hospital and University Hospital Galway, now 14 might not sound like a huge number, but that's a very, very big deal to the 14 people who were waiting for this really vital surgery, which will now be postponed to another day. Now I understand that the trade union involved here forSA has worked with the HSE to put in contingency plans for tomorrow so that emergency cover can be provided, but it is worth noting just that this is a 24 hour strike starting at 8 AM tomorrow morning, but the union has threatened further strike action later this month if the dispute isn't resolved. And what is the dispute about? So it is a pay dispute, it involves 25 profusionists who are members of the ForSA trade union and again 25 might sound like a big number, but that's actually all the profusionists working in the public health system, hence the level of disruption that we're going to see tomorrow. So ForSA has accused the HSE of taking a unilateral decision to break a long-standing pay link between profusionists and medical scientists. Those two grades have had their pay linked back since 1960, but in 2024 that link was broken. What's more, a Labour court recommendation has been issued on this, it was issued earlier this year in which it said that the HSE had unilaterally breached the existing agreement when it applied a revised pay scale to medical scientists, but not to profusionists. And the court has recommended that that pay scale be relinked and reapplied again with retrospective effect from the 1st of January 2024, and ForSA has described this as "unexceptible and shocking that the HSE has broken this pay link and has so far failed to act on that Labour court recommendation." As the HSE had anything to say about the dispute? Well, the HSE said it is developing contingency plans, focusing on minimizing disruption and protecting patient safety during this industrial action tomorrow. The HSE also saying that it's committed to continuing engagement in respect of this Labour court recommendation as part of the public service agreement local bargaining process. Now, just to remind listeners, the local bargaining clause is an element of the current public sector pay deal that allows unions to large pay claims for small amounts, usually around 1%, ForSA has rejected the HSE's suggestion that this mechanism can be used in this case to try to resolve this dispute because just in the saying quite simply, the increase wouldn't be big enough. Alright, Brian, thank you for that. That's our work and technology correspondent Brian O'Donovan.