The Health Information and Quality Authority has written to the HSE requesting management to confirm that no hospital doctors are working more than 48 hours a week.
An EU directive, introduced in 2004, dictates they should work no more than 48 hours per week.
However, junior doctors warned last week that some are working 36-hour shifts in Irish hospitals and some doctors are working over 70 hours a week, resulting in exhaustion, stress, depression and even suicide.
In a letter to the HSE, the authority expressed concerns that there may be risks to patients as a result of non-consultant hospital doctors working in excess of 48 hours per week.
The authority has also told the HSE that the information it has received suggests that the HSE and its service providers “may not be compliant with a number of the National Standards for Safer Better Healthcare.”