Hospital offers staff unpaid leave for mid-term in cash crisis

Almost the entire staff of one of Cork’s main hospitals has been offered the chance to take unpaid leave next month because of its growing financial crisis.

Scheduled operations and treatments at the South Infirmary could be severely disrupted if there is a large take-up.

Hospital management say its 600 staff are not being forced to take a week’s unpaid leave but are being given the option as the timing would coincide with the mid-term breaks in both primary and second-level schools.