The Health Minister, Wicklow T.D. Simon Harris needs to set a start date for talks to address the problem of recruiting and retaining consultants, according to the IHCA.
The Irish Hospital Consultants Association says one in five permanent consultant posts are either empty or only temporarily filled across health services.
Figures released late last week show the numbers of patients waiting to see a hospital consultant has grown by an average of almost 7,000 per month since the start of the year.
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