Charity holds funds after CUH refuses to ringfence beds for CF patients

A charity that raised millions for a new ward at Cork University Hospital (CUH) has refused to hand over the money after management reneged on a commitment to ringfence beds for cystic fibrosis (CF) patients.

Build4Life raised €3.5m for CF services at CUH — the largest philanthropic donation in the hospital’s history. Under the agreement, Build4Life agreed to pay the entire €2.3m cost of refurbishing a 20-bed ward (ward 5B) at CUH for respiratory patients in the belief that eight of the beds would be ringfenced for CF patients.

However, despite the massive financial commitment and years of fundraising, the hospital is refusing to sign a contract to ringfence CF beds.

This failure, despite repeated requests from Build4Life, led to the resignation last September of the head of the CUH charity, Joe Browne. Mr Browne, the founder of Build4Life, was head-hunted to run the CUH charity on foot of his phenomenal fundraising record with Build4Life.

However, Mr Browne told the Irish Examiner his position became “untenable” after he received a letter from CUH chief Tony McNamara on Sept 16 last which effectively said a contract was not necessary to allow the transfer of €1.8m in funds to the HSE to get the project under way.

Mr Browne said the hospital had also failed to identify the number of staff needed to run the respiratory ward even though a hospital staff member had sat on the ward project group for two years for this purpose.

The hospital had also not identified the exact location of two additional beds for seriously ill CF patients who should not be cared for among other CF patients because of the high risk of cross-infection. More than 90% of adult CF patients die from respiratory failure as a consequence of respiratory infection.

In a statement from CUH last night, Dr Barry Plant, respiratory consultant, said the respiratory team had “never put an absolute figure on the necessary number of CF inpatient beds”.

“Unfortunately on occasions such as for example a flu epidemic the hospital needs to increase bed numbers available. Hospital management and bed management teams continue to support the CF inpatient bed requirement as needed,” Dr Plant said.

The HSE said: “Patients with CF will have priority to these beds at all times. An additional two inpatient beds will also be available in the Renal Unit in CUH.”