The expansion of cross-border healthcare initiatives has been stalled due to Stormont's collapse.
Health Minister Robin Swann said a north-south body involved in advancing healthcare cooperation between Northern Ireland and the Republic cannot meet because there is no power-sharing Executive.
Cancer research, child protection and accident-and-emergency planning are among the areas examined by the North South Ministerial Council.
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But the cross-border body has been unable to hold meetings for months because the first and deputy first minister posts have been left vacant.
Stormont has been in limbo since February when the DUP withdrew its First Minister from the devolved government in protest over Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol.
The step automatically removed Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill from her previous position as Deputy First Minister and it means the Executive cannot meet.
Other ministers from the previous administration who were re-elected in May remain in post in a limited caretaker capacity.
The NSMC is one of the ways in which cross-border healthcare initiatives are generally advanced, Mr Swann said in response to an Assembly question from SDLP MLA Sinead McLaughlin.
The Health Minister said: "The NSMC health sectoral work programme focuses on accident-and-emergency planning; major emergencies; cooperation on high technology equipment; cancer research; health promotion and; from 2008 onwards, child protection."
But he added: "The NSMC has not met since May 2022 as in the absence of a First Minister and Deputy First Minister, the statutory requirements to enable the NSMC to meet cannot be fulfilled.
"Therefore, the council is unable to meet at this time."
Ms McLaughlin hit out at the DUP blocking the restoration of Stormont power-sharing.
The Foyle MLA said: "Cross-border healthcare is just one of the huge number of important initiatives that have been held up due to the DUP's continued boycott of our institutions to serve their own selfish ends.
"Given our health service is on the brink of collapse we should be exploring every avenue to help relieve the pressure on staff and get patients the help they need and it’s deeply regrettable this is not possible."
She added: "I firmly believe that greater cross-border cooperation should be a key element of our health service reform and would help us address the issues being experienced in the health service on both sides of the border to provide the best outcomes for patients and staff."
DUP Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA Deborah Erskine defended her party's record.
She said: "It was DUP Health Ministers who delivered the cross-border cancer centre in Londonderry and developed the congenital heart protocol for paediatric patients. Sensible cooperation with Dublin is what we want.
"We also want the NI Executive restored by dealing with the NI Protocol."
Ms Erskine said the Health Minister has previously "pointed to the NI Protocol causing major concern about our access to vital medicines".
She added: "The SDLP should join us in getting a solution with the EU that unionists can support, rather than trying to use health as a political football."
The Health Minister had previously warned of a risk to patients if pharmaceutical firms withdrew medicines from Northern Ireland when grace periods in the protocol ended.
Changes to EU law aimed at guaranteeing the supply of medicines from Great Britain to Northern Ireland passed their final stage in April.
In his response to Ms McLaughlin, the Health Minister said some cross-border healthcare plans are progressed through local service level agreements and the Cooperation and Working Together partnership.
The partnership involves his department, the Southern and Western health trusts, the Public Health Agency and the Republic's Health Service Executive.
Mr Swann added: "CAWT seeks to add value to existing health and social care activity by bringing a cross-border dimension to ongoing collaboration between the health systems in both jurisdictions and accessing EU funding in support of such activities where appropriate."
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