The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, has agreed to meet members of the North Eastern Health Board tomorrow to discuss the recently announced reform of the health service.
Members at the monthly meeting yesterday criticised the reforms, under which the existing health boards will be abolished and local politicians will no longer have a role.
Its chief executive, Mr Paul Robinson, said that changing structures "won't deliver one little bit of better healthcare". Ireland's hospitals were running at around 95 per cent capacity, which indicated "you are trying to deliver an emergency service," he added.
The chairman of the health board, Cllr Declan Breathnach, said "if you remove the democratic process you are further disenfranchising an impatient public from a board who have grappled with many of the issues relating to regional services. We have a major stand to make to ensure there is an active role for local representatives in the future."
The chairman of the hospital services committee, Cllr Brian Fitzgerald (Ind), said the proposals smacked "of dictatorship and worse". He said the reforms would replace the democratic process with a quango.