Hospital consultants are discussing waiting lists, capacity and problems with the healthcare environment they work in as they meet at their annual conference.
A new survey for the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has found that 76% say they are in "firefighting" mode in work.
A majority of consultants believe their work environment rarely or never reflects a culture of mutual support, cohesion or trust.
Most feel they do not have access to the necessary capacity for patients or resources and have little time to plan.
Latest figures show that almost 850,000 patients were waiting for some kind of hospital care or treatment last month.
The vast majority of these, 595,575, are people waiting to be seen by a consultant for the first time at an outpatient clinic.
The Department of Health has said waiting times were reducing and more patients were being treated.
Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly told consultants that the time patients are waiting for care is what matters, rather than the number of patients waiting for treatment.
He said that the service will eventually get to the target of no-one waiting more than three months for treatment.
Mr Donnelly told the conference that out of the 4,500 hospital consultants in the public system, 2,600 have now signed the public only contract.
He said that increasing health service capacity alone will not improve the system, there also must be a drive to increase productivity.
He added that central to this drive were clinical directors and consultants taking a leadership role on it.
The association's president, Professor Gabrielle Colleran, said that healthcare can often feel consumed by contention and confrontation.
And that there was a sharp contrast in healthcare in Ireland, with a shortage of capacity being the biggest problem.
She said there are not enough beds, emergency departments are stretched to unsafe levels, waiting lists are unacceptably high and there are nursing, and doctor shortages.
Prof Colleran said the IT infrastructure in health is often antiquated.
She told the association's annual conference that the country was finally seeing the kind of investment needed with €25.7 billion allocated under Budget 2025.
The IHCA has 4,250 members.
