CUH consultants call for independent assessment of staff numbers after minister's rebuttal

The CUH consultant staff committee said: 'We believe that this situation has occurred as a result of years of underfunding relative to other similar sized hospitals'

The CUH consultant staff committee claimed some new consultants only start work at Cork University Hospital next Monday having been hired months ago. File picture: Larry Cummins

Consultants at Cork University Hospital have demanded an independent assessment of staff numbers after the health minister denied there were safety issues and insisted management is not managing its resources properly.

Last week the hospital's chief executive Jennifer Kearney wrote a scathing letter to the HSE claiming that staffing numbers are too low to safely match patient numbers heading into the winter.

However, health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill took to the airwaves on Wednesday to deny there has been any increase in patient safety issues at CUH. The minister said she had asked the national patient safety office about patient safety incidents at the hospital.

“I'm happy to reassure your listeners in that region in particular that we have not seen any such increase and we have not had those notifiable incidents nor have we had communication to the national patient safety office or to Hiqa about safety concerns,” she said.

She also claimed during an interview on RTÉ radio that: 

• the South West region has hired more people in this year than any other region and is significantly over its budget
• hospitals in Limerick, where emergency department presentations are much higher, are within budget and have hired and maintained within budget
• Cork has had a “very significant increase in staffing” in the last five to six years of more than 40%, alongside a budget increase of 108%
• there is more to do in Cork to get the best value and the best deployment of all of the resources that it has been given

In the wake of the interview, the CUH consultant staff committee wrote to the minister and HSE chief executive Anne O'Connor to voice support for the hospital chief executive's stance.

“The consultant body is fully behind the CUH chief executive Jennifer Kearney when she insists we are at least 600 bodies shy of what the hospital needs and not 250 over," they wrote.

The letters, seen by the Irish Examiner, were signed by Professor Greg Fulton, surgeon and chair of the CUH consultant staff committee. 

“We believe that this situation has occurred as a result of years of underfunding relative to other similar sized hospitals. This, we contend, is due, in part, to a recurring desire of previous CUH management over many years to stay within their budget allocation when other hospitals did not. 

“We would urge you to appoint an independent assessor to determine the appropriate staff allocation for CUH. One that reflects the size and significance of the institution.” 

In a separate statement, the committee later shared its "deep disappointment" with the minister's interview, saying "(her comments) appeared to dismiss the real concerns of hospital management and clinicians over the significant impact the recruitment embargo and capacity deficits have and will have on patient safety and outcomes". 

The committee claimed some new consultants only start work next Monday having been hired months ago.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

The doctors also said they “strongly disagree with the minister’s assertion that the view of the National Patient Safety Office at the Department of Health should override the view of a local hospital CEO or consultants on the ground.” 

It said Hiqa last week wrote to CUH asking for information around Ms Kearney’s safety concerns.

Labour health spokeswoman Marie Sherlock was also concerned about the implications of comments around the national patient safety office. “I think it’s a really dangerous strategy to wait until something bad has happened and then to say ‘oh there is a patient safety issue’,” she warned.

She felt the message given was the position of the patient safety office outweighed concerns from the hospital chief executive. “That to me is completely dismissive of the issues,” Ms Sherlock said. “Surely we shouldn’t be waiting for something to happen?"