The Irish Patients Association says patients lives are at risk if the proposed strike by nurses goes ahead at the end of the month.
Their comments come after the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisations announced yesterday that 37,000 of their members will walk off the job on the January 30 with further stoppages planned for February.
The union says members are fed up dealing with low pay and poor working conditions.
Spokesperson for the Irish Patients Association Stephen McMahon says the onus is now on all party's to fix this situation as soon as possible:
"At the end of the day, patients lives are at risk should this go forward.
"There are already risky situations for patients with the overcrowding in our (Emergency) Departments. If you start to pull out nurses from other services within the hospital system - it's really like a nuclear meltdown.
"The onus is on all of hte key players to sit down around the table and even include the Government to resolve this
