A&E costs set to hit €4m at CUH

THE cost of running the new A&E unit at Cork University Hospital increased by €1m in the three months after it opened and a further e1m increase is expected by mid-October.

In total, the additional annual cost of running the department is expected to hit €4m by April next year, one year after the unit opened. It is not yet known if the Health Service Executive (HSE) will continue to allocate an additional €4m annually to run the new unit at CUH.

The extra money has already been allocated by the HSE and covers a substantial increase in staff numbers. Overall staffing levels have soared from approximately 93 to 160, including 30 extra nurses; the number of allied health staff has tripled from seven to 21 and the number of non-nursing staff has doubled from 20 to 41.