Health chiefs were last night accused of abandoning "the weakest and most vulnerable" in society after it emerged terminally ill patients are being forced to spend some of their final days on lengthy waiting lists.

The criticisms came as the Irish Hospice Foundation revealed that 133 terminally ill patients were on a waiting list desperately seeking access to hospice care.

In the country's three main facilities of hospice care -- the Dublin-based Harold's Cross, Blackrock and St Francis units -- 44 patients were told they would have to wait days for in-patient, home care and day care.

In Marymount Hospice in Cork, 53 people were awaiting their first home-care visit and eight were unable to access in-patient beds.

Similar concerns were also raised in the north east, south east and midlands.

The revelations come in the wake of the HSE's admission last May that about half of the money allocated to hospices for palliative care had been diverted.

The Government allocated €21m in the last three full Budgets towards specialist palliative care services in a bid to end regional disparities and provide hospices where none existed.

The allocations followed commitments given in the 'Towards 2016' partnership agreement and the National Development Plan.

But the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children was told much of the money had been withdrawn to meet cost overruns in demand-led drugs schemes and acute hospital services.

Last night, the HSE indicated that further funding may not be available for some time.

It recently finalised its €308m National Action Plan for Palliative Care Services 2009-2013, which will see an increase in the annual spending on hospice care.

The plan also includes commitments to increase the number of hospice beds from 153 to 356 and to build nine new hospices.

Shocking

But a spokesman said yesterday the HSE will only be able to act when specific regional resources are available.

Fine Gael Health spokesman Dr James Reilly last night branded the current situation as "shocking".

"It is astounding that terminally ill patients cannot even receive this basic medical care," he said. "Yet again we see a rudderless HSE which is unable to prioritise care of the weakest and most vulnerable in society."

Labour's Jan O'Sullivan insisted the Government must act now to pump resources into this area.

"These figures just show how bad things are in our health service," she said.