Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill will not attend next month’s hospital consultants conference.

Sources close to the Minister for Health said she would be unable to speak at the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) gathering as she had other commitments in her official diary.

It is unusual for a minister for health not to attend the annual conferences of the main medical organisations.

Ms Carroll MacNeill also did not attend the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) conference in April due to prior commitments.

A senior IHCA delegation held talks with the Minister earlier this year, a meeting which a number of sources have described as “tense”.

In a statement this weekend the IHCA described that meeting in March as “constructive and robust”.

It is understood that at that meeting the IHCA raised the implementation of the recommendations of a Department of Health expert group on reforms relating to medical negligence claims which was chaired by former Master of the National Maternity Hospital Prof Rhona Mahony.

Since the Minister’s appointment in January, she has pressed for the full implementation of provisions in the new public-only hospital consultant contract to improve productivity in hospitals, particularly at weekends.

Health sources said that at the meeting in March with the IHCA there had been robust discussion and an exchange of views about the implementation of the public-only contract and having senior clinical decision-makers in hospitals at weekends and night-time.

Health sources said the meeting had ended amicably.

The IHCA said this weekend it was “unfortunate” the Minister for Health could not attend its October conference, but it said the invitation remained open.

Sources close to the Minister said the IHCA had initially suggested it was also considering asking Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan to attend as one of the main issues to be debated at the conference was medico-legal reform.

Health sources insisted that by the time Ms Carroll MacNeill was invited, she already had a commitment for the date of the IHCA conference.