Health Service Executive (HSE) chief Brendan Drumm has promised to improve the quality of information sent to members of the Oireachtas, following a meeting which lasted over three hours yesterday.
Insisting that the HSE had "got better at delivering answers to the Oireachtas" over recent months, Prof Drumm acknowledged that the quality of them "has got worse".
Led by Fine Gael Cork North Central's Bernard Allen, a significant number of TDs insisted that the health body is increasingly unaccountable and resistant to efforts to make it so.
Some 75 TDs and 25 Senators attended the Leinster House meeting, which began at 8.30am and went on until midday, even though it had been due to finish at 10am.
Some TDs were furious at the HSE for asking them to sign an attendance book before entering: "Who the hell do they think they are," one politician said bitterly.
Descriptions of the meeting varied, depending on those who were interviewed, though the majority accepted that "it wasn't a bloodbath, contrary to what some people say". Faced with repeated complaints about the HSE's accountability, Prof Drumm said he was willing to come before TDs in every Dáil session, not just once a year.
In addition, he said regional HSE officials would meet more formally, and more often with groups of TDs and Senators in their areas to sort out problems.
Since the HSE was formed, the Department of Health and Children refers questions from TDs about day-to-day operational matters to the HSE, leaving TDs furious.
Prof Drumm agreed to a call from Labour deputy leader Joan Burton to meet women TDs, who she said were particularly concerned about the difficulties in Portlaoise.
Fine Gael's Dr James Reilly said he believed that he had "just woken up from a nightmare to be told that everything in the health service is fine, that there are no problems.
"That is not the case. We have cutbacks, operations cancelled and the fiasco in Portlaoise, which is a tragedy for the women involved," the Fine Gael health spokesman added.
Fianna Fáil TDs, including Tipperary South TD, Mattie McGrath, defended Prof Drumm, acknowledging his argument that major improvements are taking place all of the time in the service.
However, Fine Gael TD Olwyn Enright said that "serious contradictions exist" between Minister for Health Mary Harney and Prof Drumm about the roles to be played in future by centres of excellence, and the roles that will be left to local hospitals.
Ms Harney had told the Dáil on Wednesday that most patients requiring radiotherapy, diagnostics, chemotherapy or oncology services would receive them at "satellite" hospitals, and not have to travel regularly to one of the eight new proposed centres.
"But this morning when I questioned Prof Drumm about this he told me that all diagnostic services will be carried out in centres of excellence only. There is a clear disconnect between the Minister and the head of the HSE," Ms Enright said.
Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said that Prof Drumm's refusal to acknowledge the many crises in the health service, and his failure to accept the fact that it was unacceptable to blame the public for the problems "beggars belief".
