HSE asked to prioritise CF unit staff

The HSE’s national recruitment service has been asked to prioritise staffing a new €2.3m respiratory ward, funded by a charity, that remains closed at Cork University Hospital (CUH) due to nurse shortages.

Junior Health Minister Kathleen Lynch said in the Dáil yesterday that she had also asked Gerry O’Dwyer, CEO of the South/South West Hospitals Group, to work on resolving the issue as soon as possible.

Ms Lynch was responding to criticisms made by a number of TDs about the hospital’s inability to open the ward, which it has blamed on recruitment difficulties.

The construction and equipping of the 20-bed respiratory ward, which includes 10 designated single inpatient rooms for adults with cystic fibrosis, was paid for by Munster-based cystic fibrosis charity, Build4Life.

Its founder Joe Browne said the ward should have opened in March and he has called on Health Minister Leo Varadkar to intervene. Mr Browne said the HSE has had almost four years to plan staffing.

Fianna Fáil TD Billy Kelleher was one of four TDs to raise the issue with Ms Lynch yesterday. He said the HSE was “foot-dragging at the very least and incompetent at the very worst”.

He said Build4Life had “lightened the burden on the state in terms of developing an infrastructure that was required for cystic fibrosis patients” and now neither the HSE nor the State could recruit the necessary staff.

He said the situation at CUH was symptomatic of HSE practice across the country, that it seemed “incapable of anticipating staffing requirements for new builds”. Independent TD for Kerry South, Michael Healy-Rae said it was “simply not good enough”.

“That new unit did not fall out of the sky and everyone knew it would have to be staffed and managed,” he said.

Sinn Féin TD for Kerry West/ Limerick North Martin Ferris said failure to get the unit staffed was “either absolute total incompetence or total neglect” and that it was “hard to fathom how this fiasco could be let continue”.

Tom Fleming, Independent TD for Kerry South, said there was “a huge necessity to get the ward open immediately”, not least because of the risk of cross-infection “which can be fatal to [cystic fibrosis] patients”.

He called on Ms Lynch to “redouble” her efforts to ensure the unit was staffed.

Ms Lynch said there were about 40 nurse vacancies at CUH and that there were intensive recruitment campaigns underway nationally and internationally.