Minister for Health James Reilly has blamed an "extraordinary winter" and the extended flu season for a "rebound" in hospital waiting lists.
But Dr Reilly insisted significant progress had been made in improving access to hospital services despite the “significant challenges” in providing care over the last six months.
By December 2012, he pointed out, there were over 20,000 fewer patients on trolleys and the number waiting for day surgery and endoscopies were also significantly down.
“Since there, there had been some rebound because of the extraordinary winter we’ve had, not so much in attendance numbers but in rates of admission.” For older people, admission rates were up 70 per cent and intensive care units had been in full use.
Northern Ireland and areas in northern England had experienced the same trends.
Dr Reilly said it was still the hope of Government that Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill would be enacted before the summer.
Some hospitals will be short up to 40 per cent of their required number of junior doctors at the time of the next rotation of staff in July, Sinn Fein health spokesman Caomhghin O Caolain predicted.
Mr O Caolain said there was a real and genuine fear among some hospital manager that services in their hospitals would have to cease as a result of a shortage of medical staff.
He said the deficit predicted in some areas was 20 to 40 per cent, not the 2-4 per cent estimated by the HSE.
The centralised application system operated by the HSE for recruiting non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs) did not have the confidence of all hospitals, he said, and an indication that local recruitment could take place had come “much too late”.
Sufficient agency staff to meet needs.
HSE director of human resources Barry O’Brien said he was confident that any service posts left vacant would be filled by agency staff.
Dr Reilly said the issue would be addressed by hospital groups, which would in future employ the NCHDs.
Building of the national children’s hospital would start in 2015 and the projection would be completed in 2018, he said.
