Staffing shortages delay opening of €2.3m CF unit
Joe Browne, founder of Build4Life, the charity that paid for the construction and equipping of the ward, said they were initially told it would open in March, then April, then June.
There is little prospect of a June opening on foot of the latest response from the HSE to queries from Mr Browne.
The hospital says transferring the CF service to the new ward, 5B, involves “reorganising a number of other services to maintain safe staffing levels within the hospital”.
CUH says that to do so at this time would mean a loss of eight medical beds across the hospital, mainly due to the extra staff required on the CF ward.
When the Irish Examiner asked for an opening date, the response was: “It is still under discussion.” Asked how many staff would man the ward, the response, after a six-week wait, was: “Within existing level of service.”
Mr Browne said he is now calling on Health Minister Leo Varadkar to intervene and request that the ward be opened, “because it’s quite obvious that management at the hospital don’t have the skillset to complete a life-saving project”.
He said the charity had put up funds for the ward, and “all the hospital had to do was provide the staff”.
Fianna Fáil’s health spokesman, Billy Kelleher, said
the HSE “had years” to organise staffing for the CF ward and that he would be raising the matter in the Dáil this week.
The 20-bed, fully furnished empty ward, pictures of which appear inside today’s Irish Examiner, will cater for a variety of respiratory diseases as well as CF.
The HSE said an intensive campaign is under way to recruit additional nurses both locally and internationally, with potential candidates being interviewed on a weekly basis.
“Naturally, there is a lead-in time for successful candidates to commence in post,” said the HSE. “The hospital management team are hoping that the staffing numbers will have reached the level required to retain the medical inpatient beds if recruitment goes well and will then move on to opening the cystic fibrosis inpatient service.”
