Health minister takes aim at CUH: 'The reality is there are some hospitals that have not improved'
Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill questioned why Cork hospitals have not improved to the same degree as Dublin hospitals.
Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has again taken aim at Cork University Hospital (CUH), questioning why trolley numbers remain so bad when recruitment is the “highest by some distance of any hospital in this country”.
Ms Carroll MacNeill, the Fine Gael TD for Dun Laoghaire, compared CUH to Dublin hospitals, St James’ and Beaumont, which she argued have similar demands and resources but are performing better.
“The reality is that there are some hospitals that have not improved, that need to improve, and bizarrely, the ones that consistently don't improve, Cork, have had the highest recruitment,” she said.
The ministers’ comments come just days after Jennifer Kearney, chief executive of CUH, again raised patient safety concerns at the hospital due to a lack of resources, warning that the situation is “getting worse”, and CT scanners are “gathering dust” due to widespread job vacancies.
Ms Carroll MacNeill was taking leaders’ questions in the Dáil when she was asked about trolley numbers by Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) revealed that 531 patients were waiting for beds in hospitals across the country yesterday.
Of these, 351 were in emergency departments, and 180 were on wards elsewhere in hospitals.
Read More
At CUH, 52 patients were on trolleys, including 45 in the emergency department.
The HSE’s trolley figures, which are compiled differently, recorded 44 patients on trolleys at CUH.
Mr Doherty called for greater recruitment across the HSE, noting that the number of older people spending more than 24 hours on trolleys had increased by 21% in the first half of the year.
Ms Carroll MacNeill told the Dáil that recruitment in some areas, including Cork, had not led to improved services or fewer patients on trolleys.
She argued that some hospitals that had received the same number of new posts as CUH had successfully reduced trolley numbers.
“Cork, another place where there's been an articulation of patient safety and recruitment challenges, has had 233 people just recruited into the hospital,” Ms Carroll MacNeill told the Dáil.
“That's the highest by some distance of any hospital in this country. Yet there are 40 to 44 people on trolleys.”
She also questioned why CUH was lagging behind Dublin hospitals, arguing that Beaumont Hospital and CUH faced the “same demand pressures”, had both recruited staff, and had the same needs up to 2027.
She questioned why Beaumont’s performance was “different to Cork”, with just nine people on trolleys compared to 44.
“You tell me why James', one of the biggest, busiest hospitals in this country, in an area of particular socio-economic disadvantage, why they have 10 people on trolleys, notwithstanding the pressures that they face, but Cork has 44?” she said.
“The reality is that many hospitals have improved significantly over this year, but there are about six or seven hospitals that have not.”
Labour TD Marie Sherlock also raised concerns about CT scanners in CUH “lying idle” because of a “lack of sanctioned staff”.
However, Ms Carroll MacNeill suggested the problem lay in how CUH was allocating its resources.
“Cork University Hospital has hired 233 people. Why has it not prioritised resources for that CT scanner? Because Beaumont did,” she said.
The minister's criticism of Cork comes just days after Ms Kearney told the Irish Hospital Consultants Association that moving back to Ireland after working in the British health system is like “stepping back in time”.
She had previously written to HSE leadership warning about gaps in care because of staffing shortages.
Ms Kearney said the situation in CUH is “getting worse" and that only seven posts have been approved for CUH, warning that the “gap is getting wider” between what is needed and what they have.
She acknowledged CUH has hired new staff, saying more than 120 of these roles were for the new surgical hub, and warned that the hospital is “overspending” on agency staff to fill gaps.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
