Row could delay hospital opening

HEALTH Minister Mary Harney has intervened in a row over staffing levels which has threatened to scupper the opening of a new €75 million maternity hospital.

The minister has guaranteed that by next December, the number of midwives working at Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) will reach 383, the number recommended by an international midwifery expert.

To date, failure to reach that figure has led to a face-off between the country’s largest nursing union, the Irish Nurses’ Organisation (INO) and the Health Service Executive (HSE). Funding is currently in place for a nursing/midwifery complement of 375.5 full-time positions including 304 midwives, 62 student midwives and seven-and-a-half nursery nurses. The INO has claimed anything less than 383 midwives will create an unsafe environment for patients when CUMH opens on March 24.