The Minister for Health has criticised St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin and the Mid-Western Health Board area for failing to refer more patients to the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF).
Mr Martin told the Dáil that their waiting lists could have been "dramatically reduced" had a higher number of patients been referred to the fund, and it was "not acceptable".
The NTPF is used to treat public patients privately who have been waiting more than six months for surgical treatment.
The Minister told Fine Gael's health spokeswoman, Ms Olivia Mitchell, that there were difficulties with James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown and the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital because of the "small number of patients being referred by these hospitals to the NTPF".
However, the fund was "hopeful of a positive outcome following recent discussions with these hospitals".
Ms Mitchell called for the Minister to "take a strong line on this issue". She said that "if consultants are not co-operating with the treatment fund, they are denying patients the opportunity to choose. They are making decisions on behalf of patients."
It was also "ludicrous" that €1.5 million was spent last year on advertising the fund.
She said public patients, as "patients of the State", were entitled to "receive treatment in whatever way the State can deliver it to them".
She also asked if the Minister agreed that the "lists do not belong to consultants, and the patients do not belong to the consultants".
Mr Martin said the treatment fund had received calls from 9,272 people, of whom 2,145 were found to be eligible and were subsequently treated. Up to 15,000 people had been treated by the fund.
He said treating such a number of patients could not have been possible without the co-operation of hospital consultants. However, the fund did not receive "universal co-operation".
The fund was concerned at the "very low level of referral" from St Vincent's and the Mid-Western Health Board.
Some hospitals had expressed concern about patient confidentiality, but the Data Protection Commissioner said that disclosure to the fund was compatible with the purpose for which patients gave their details in the first place.
"We have identified a number of hospitals that have not co-operated to the extent that we consider necessary and correct," he said. In others "there have been significant improvements in waiting times in many hospitals".
Ms Mitchell found it "utterly ludicrous that a State agency had to spend enormous sums of money on advertising on national radio to identify those public patients who are waiting for a public service", with over €1.5 million spent last year.
However, the Minister said that the advertising "acts as an additional lever for the system, and helps people to know what they are entitled to.
"We should not underestimate the need for strong public campaigns to make people aware of what they can access, and how they can access it."
