Agency staff row may delay opening of ward designed to ease A&E crowding at CUH

A bitter row between nurses and management over the use of agency staff to run a 31-bed ward at Cork University Hospital could scupper its planned opening on Monday.

Even though the step-down ward is designed to reduce emergency department (ED) overcrowding, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation is resisting the move on the grounds that staffing it entirely with agency workers is effectively “an outsourcing model” that could set a dangerous precedent.

Fears around creeping privatisation of the health service have resurfaced recently against a backdrop of Health Minister Leo Varadkar admitting he favours outsourcing management of hospitals to private providers in instances where hospitals are consistently underperforming in terms of clinical outcomes.

INMO industrial relations officer Mary Rose Carroll said that, as far as the union was concerned, it was about “adherence to the Public Service Agreement” (PSA), which saw employers commit to providing direct labour as far as possible.

“From our perspective, appropriate engagement did not take place, as required under the PSA,” she said.

Ms Carroll said the INMO’s difficulty centred on “the principle of outsourcing”. While the union welcomed additional beds, it is unhappy that staff running the ward would operate under different terms and conditions.

The hospital said it was “doing everything possible to reduce trolleys” in the ED, including opening the new transitional care unit for patients close to discharge.

It said the beds would be staffed by agency nurses for a period of seven months, during which time permanent nurses would be employed and that the recruitment process for these nurses was “well under way”.

The hospital rejected that it was “an outsourcing model” and said it planned to open the beds on Monday, adding: “We hope that agreement can be reached with the INMO to this end.”

However Ms Carroll said the matter had been referred to the Health Service Oversight Body, formed to oversee the implementation of the PSA, with a hearing scheduled to take place on November 24. She said the union was willing to engage with management on the issue. There were 10 patients on trolleys at CUH yesterday, according to the INMO.

CUH has been plagued in recent times by rows over ward openings. Last month, a 20-bed respiratory ward finally opened after months of delay, which hospital management blamed on staffing difficulties.

Prior to that, there was an eight-month delay in opening a €15m, 50-bed acute psychiatric unit, again largely due to staffing issues. A commitment to regularise a number of acting up posts formed part of the agreement to open the unit, as well as making a number of temporary posts permanent.

However, staff at the unit say this has yet to happen. The unit opened in August.