SCORES of nurses yesterday stayed off the job for the second day, forcing public hospitals to scale down operations to offer emergency services only.

At the same time, the Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ) snubbed a meeting that was planned for yesterday morning with the labour ministry to settle the ongoing wage dispute.

Health Minister Rudyard Spencer, who said there was no notification of the industrial action by the executive of the NAJ, stated that emergency protocols were activated to ensure that operations at the affected health facilities were not severely hampered.

"For the affected facilities, only emergency cases are being dealt with. Noncritical patients are being discharged and elective surgeries have been cancelled; senior nursing staff are manning the critical areas of hospital operations," Spencer said in a press release yesterday.

"I want to implore persons to co-operate with the management of the hospitals as we do the best we can to maintain critical services at the affected institutions," the health minister added.

According to the health ministry, 73 per cent of the nurses rostered for the morning shift at the Port Maria Hospital in St Mary failed to show for work, while half of those rostered for the 7:00 am to 3:00 pm shift failed to show at the Victoria Jubilee and Mandeville Hospitals. There was a 42 per cent rate of absenteeism at the St Ann's Bay Hospital, the ministry said. However, while giving percentages the ministry could not say exactly how many nurses failed to report for work.

On the first day of the sick-out the institutions with the highest levels of absenteeism were Port Maria with 55 per cent; 64 per cent at the Port Antonio Hospital; 83 per cent at Mandeville; 50 per cent at Linstead, 40 per cent at Annotto Bay; 61 per cent at St Ann's Bay and 51 per cent at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital.

The ministry yesterday urged persons to make contact with the health facilities for information on loved ones and services being offered.

For several months, public sector nurses have been involved in an ugly dispute with the Government over the failure of the administration to implement a job reclassification, which would see nurses receiving substantial increases.