SINN Féin's Colm Gildernew last night called on the DUP to get back to Stormont to help "provide the political leadership health workers are looking for".
Amid the escalating crisis in the NHS, Mr Gildernew also said the UK government "needs to immediately reverse its decade-long policy of cuts to the health service and invest in health and social care".
The party’s health spokesperson said the system "is breaking under the weight" of the cuts.
"The current Tory government are acting like spectators to the collapse of health services in the north and in Britain," he said.
"That is cruel, uncaring and unacceptable. We need substantial investment into health and social care to pay workers a fair wage, to transform the system and bring to an end the cycle of services and health workers being overwhelmed.
"Those working in health and social care are also crying out for political leadership. They want local ministers back around the executive table working for the patients and the people they care for. They want an executive to invest an extra £1 billion in the health service, to hire more doctors and nurses and to get on with tackling chronic waiting lists and transformation of the health service."
He added that Sinn Féin is "ready to form an executive".
"It is long past time DUP ended their utterly reckless boycott of the executive and join with the rest of us who want to make politics work," he said.
