The HSE has raised concerns about the possibility of a Delta variant wave
It says some patients have already had appointments cancelled during lockdown, and sometimes more than once.
Chief Operations Officer, Anne O'Connor, says there are a number of reasons why hospitals are already very busy:
"May would always be a very busy month so we we don't know if it's just a deferred May-type attendance. But we know that in many of our sites, we are seeing extraordinarily high levels. And when we look at some of our big sites, and the big Model-4 hospitals, Galway, Cork University Hospital, Limerick and some of the Dublin hospitals, we can see that their attendances would be what we would expect to see in the in the peak of a winter surge.".
