Fianna Fáil health spokesperson Stephen Donnelly has called for the State to reverse a decision not to process biopsies from cancer patients sent in by private consultants who have not signed the Type A public contract.
Mr Donnelly said that the State Claims Agency has written to the country's histopathologists, telling them not to accept biopsies from these consultants - who are thought to number around 300.
The agency will not indemnify the work for those consultants operating outside of the public contract. Mr Donnelly said the "extraordinary" situation could see skin cancer patients and women with cervical cancers remaining undiagnosed and therefore untreated.