Minister for Health Mary Harney has told the Dáil that 33,000 more patients have been treated in acute hospitals to date this year, compared with the same period last year.
The HSE claims it will achieve its target services levels for 2009 and in some cases will exceed those targets.
Asked by Fine Gael health spokesperson James Reilly if hospitals would be cutting back services in the run up to Christmas in order to balance the books, Ms Harney said there was some 'scale back' in elective work in hospitals in December.
However, she said emergency and acute services remain fully operational.
