Evaluation of Cork hospital management staffing decisions needed – Chambers

An evaluation of where staff were “prioritised” and “allocated” by management at a Cork hospital at the centre of a funding row should be carried out, the expenditure minister has said.

Jack Chambers said an assessment of what the “allocations achieved” is needed following “significant increases in expenditure” at Cork University Hospital (CUH).

He made the comments as calls for an independent assessment of staffing needs at the hospital has grown.

Senior staff at the Cork hospital have been raising reports of patient safety risks arising from staffing shortages and restrictions.

Staffing shortages were first raised by the hospital back in April while in August the hospital’s chief executive Jennifer Kearney wrote to the HSE saying conditions at the hospital were “unsustainable”.

In the letter, she said it was not safe to enter the winter period with more than 1,000 staff shortages.

It comes as some 70 patients waited on trolleys on Monday.

Social Democrats deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan said most of the patients who were waiting were elderly.

“Trolley to trolley, backed up against each other, in bright, noisy corridors, some of them beside draughty windows, making rest impossible, making recovery impossible,” Mr O’Callaghan told the Dáil on Tuesday.

“On the (RTÉ’s) David McCullagh Show this morning, (CUH) professor of emergency medicine Conor Deasy described the conditions as tantamount to torture.

“Jennifer Kearney did her best to warn your government of what was coming, but instead of listening to her, the health minister (Jennifer Carroll MacNeill) went on the attack. She lambasted CUH and said appeals for additional staff were unrealistic.

“Now look where we are. Surgeries for cancer patients have been cancelled at short notice.

“Women admitted for breast cancer surgery. Some already in hospital gowns were sent home.

“Minister, imagine during the anxiety, the fear, the emotional strain that comes from before major surgery, only to be told at the last minute that it would not go ahead. No patient should ever be put through this type of ordeal.”

Mr O’Callaghan repeated his party’s call for an independent assessment of staffing needs in the hospital.

Minister for Public Expenditure Mr Chambers said that staff recruitment has increased by 6%.

“ED attendances in CUH have increased by 11% from September last year to September of this year, and successive governments in recent years have supported CUH,” Mr Chambers said.

“When you look at the staff increases, when you look at the overall level of investment between 2019 and 2025, funding has increased by 98%, from 303 million to 600 million, and this has driven notable growth in staffing levels.

“107 additional beds have been added since 2020, an increase of 19%.

“CUH has recruited and has grown its staff complement by 324 from 4,870 to 5,194, which is over 6% increase compared to a 3% growth across more generally across Department of Health funded HSE services.

“But where there has to be evaluation is where the staffing decisions were made within management, in terms of where were they prioritised, where were they allocated, and what have those allocations achieved in the context of significant increases in expenditure and significant increases in investment in recent years.”

Labour leader Ivana Bacik said that unsafe conditions have “become the norm” at the hospital.

“We learned that CUH may now face quarterly fines of 300,000 euro for non-compliance with labour laws and breaks in hours. Yet the Minister for Health has the temerity to insist that CUH is operating on par with other hospitals,” Ms Bacik said.

“In today’s Irish Times, Beaumont emergency consultant Dr Peadar Gilligan points out that the ordinary state of affairs in Irish hospitals is unsafe.

“Unsafe conditions have become the norm. So, CUH being on par with other hospitals is of no reassurance, not to nurses preparing to strike again when they know their best efforts are no guarantee of safe care, not reassuring for patients either now being told they may not receive treatment until the new year.

“Not reassuring for sick people on chairs in emergency departments deteriorating while they wait to be seen.”