Failure to deliver leaves taxpayer holding the baby

LIKE the expectant mother who fails to meet her due-date, the country’s newest maternity hospital failed to deliver on time.

Despite months of hard labour to ensure Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) opened on Saturday, no amount of inducing could bring reluctant midwives on board for the scheduled opening.

Operation Bambino, which should have seen the State’s largest ever neo-natal transfer kick off at 9am, never materialised. Instead, mums-to-be were advised to travel to existing maternity services at the Erinville, St Finbarr’s or the Bon Secours hospitals as frantic negotiations continued in an effort to bridge the gulf between the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO).