Mercy’s A&E will open for days only

CORK’s Mercy Hospital is still planning to open its mothballed A&E unit on a part-time basis despite progress in crunch talks on staffing yesterday.

Mercy University Hospital (MUH) announced on Monday that it will finally open its €5 million A&E unit in June from 8am to 8pm only.

The unit has lain idle for 15 months because of an impasse over staffing numbers.

MUH chief executive Pat Madden said the hospital is facing a €4.6m funding shortfall this year and needs about €1.25m to staff the unit.

But both Health Minister Mary Harney and HSE chief executive Brendan Drumm have ruled out providing extra funds.

HSE South managers met with MUH managers at the hospital yesterday to discuss the situation.

Afterwards, Mr Madden described the meeting as “useful” and said more meetings are planned over the coming weeks.

He would not discuss the details of the meeting. But he said in the meantime, MUH is continuing to formulate plans to open the new emergency department at the hospital on a restricted hours basis by June.

The HSE said another meeting is planned for next week and said it would not be commenting at this stage on the process.

Labour Party TD for Cork North Central Kathleen Lynch said the situation highlighted the HSE attitude whereby the success of a project was measured by accountants and bookkeepers rather than by clinical medical staff.