Health committee to raise CUH staffing shortages with the HSE and Department of Health

The CUH Consultants Committee repeated its call for the health minister to send an independent assessor to examine staffing numbers. Picture: Dan Linehan

The health committee is to raise staffing shortages with the HSE and Department of Health later this month following concerns about patient safety at Cork University Hospital (CUH).

The CUH Consultants Committee wrote to the health committee in recent days warning patient safety has been compromised and asking it to intercede with the health minister.

In the letter, the doctors repeated their call for health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill to send an independent assessor to examine staffing numbers in light of a dispute between CUH and the minister.

She has said the hospital is significantly over-budget on hiring. 

However, hospital chief executive Jennifer Kearney has said publicly and in correspondence with the HSE the site is under-staffed compared to demand.

On Thursday, there were 68 people on trolleys waiting to get a bed at CUH according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation. 

The HSE’s assessment of trolleys also showed high numbers, counting 54 people on trolleys in CUH along with 43 lying on temporary surge beds.

The INMO also counted another 40 people on trolleys at the Mercy University Hospital.

In the letter, the doctors told the health committee: "Your role in seeking explanations and holding the minister to account is particularly important when serious concerns are raised about the safety and capacity of a major hospital.” 

They warned it is now two months since Ms Kearney wrote to the head of the HSE warning about potential risks for patients.

“Many consultants believe patient safety has already been compromised,” the letter says.

There remains “significant disagreement” between CUH and the health minister on staffing, it adds. 

It suggests an independent assessor could provide “an agreed factual basis” for discussion on staffing.

The letter asks the committee to “seek an explanation of how the Minister proposes to address the patient safety concerns raised by hospital leadership and senior medical staff, and what assessment she has made of the impact of her public criticism on staff morale”.

The letter was addressed to the committee and to committee chair Social Democrats health spokesman Pádraig Rice.

On Thursday, Mr Rice said that in two weeks, the committee will meet the HSE and Department of Health in relation to staffing and the budget.

“We are going to raise those issues [around CUH] in that context,” he said. 

“The committee has asked for a briefing in relation to the recruitment restrictions, the embargos and a briefing from them in advance around some of those issues the consultants are raising.” 

These include, he said, staffing and key vacancies not being filled. 

“There are legitimate questions here about the head-count,” he said.

He has been told, for example, of consultants who split their hours between University College Cork and CUH but are counted as full-time in the hospital. 

In other cases when a locum is covering a doctor on long-term sick leave, both people are counted as present, he has been told.