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.