The Health Minister has ordered a performance review of all top managers in the HSE.

Simon Harris said he had asked the Director General of the HSE to rate all senior managers under a number of criteria.

His comments come as the number of patients waiting for admission to Emergency Departments again passed 500.

Speaking to C103 in Cork, Minister Harris said: “In relation to the issue of performance management, I wrote to the director general of the HSE last week, reminding the HSE there are four metrics that every manager in the health service signs up to.

“One is financial, one is access to services for patients. The other is quality of service and the other is safety of service.

“I’ve asked the director general to report back to me very clearly showing how each and every manager right across the health service is measuring up against those metrics.”