CUH chief defends €2.3m spend on management consultants

Cork University Hospital CEO David Donegan: 'We are proud of the improvements we have made in a relatively short period of time.' Picture: Denis Boyle

The chief executive of Cork University Hospital (CUH) has staunchly defended the hospital's multi-million euro spend on external management consultants, pointing to specific changes for patients in Cork as a result.

In an exclusive interview with the Irish Examiner, Limerick man David Donegan also said he is “cautiously optimistic” that this winter’s trolley numbers will be lower in CUH, partly due to projects supported by the external advisors.

He took up his role in August last year and faced the challenge of cutting wait times and trolley numbers at one of the country's busiest hospitals.

Management consultancy firm PwC began working with the hospital in October, with costs by the end of May standing at over €2.3m.

“We are proud of the improvements we have made in a relatively short period of time,” Mr Donegan told the Irish Examiner, saying this was done at the request of staff to support them.

He said it is taking longer than he anticipated to build up "in-house management capability". 

He expects this level of interaction with PwC to wrap up “by the end of the year”, depending on internal recruitment levels, and rejected claims that staff are unhappy working with external consultants. 

Mr Donegan says he anticipates this work will bear fruit in the coming months, and that he “very much hopes” this winter and Christmas will be different to last year for patients in terms of wait times and overcrowding.

'Cautiously optimistic'

He stressed there are “always risks” but said: “I am cautiously optimistic that this will be a much better winter, and that over the next two to three years we will start delivering what patients in Cork deserve, and what our staff deserve.” 

Mr Donegan also said, in the past, links between bed shortages, growing population, and overcrowding were not widely accepted in relation to CUH.

“We know that we have one of the largest deficits of inpatient bed capacity of any hospital in Ireland, and that is going to take a number of years to resolve,” he said.

“But there are signs for optimism. In the last seven weeks, we have had some of the best trolley numbers in Cork than we have had for many, many years. And in comparison to some of our peer hospitals nationally, we are also performing well.” 

However, he added: “But I take no comfort from that, because every patient who waits too long to be admitted is one patient too many. We are committed to making that better.” 

Trolley numbers

Data gathered by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation for June showed 695 patients spent a night on a trolley at CUH, a drop from the 834 recorded in June 2019. This, however, still saw the hospital ranked among the five worst-affected hospitals in the State that month.

There have also been improvements in ambulance turnaround times, with the average wait declining from 95 minutes to 45 minutes by last month. 

"We have almost eliminated any ambulances waiting longer than two hours. That is thousands of patients here who get care significantly quicker," he said.

He said this has seen sustained improvement since March, which is leading to his positivity that this can continue even when winter illnesses ramp up again.