Health minister slams CUH over trolley numbers despite highest level of staff recruitment 

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill questioned why CUH has not reduced trolley numbers despite recruiting 233 staff, citing improvements at other hospitals

Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said some hospitals that had received the same number of new posts as CUH had successfully reduced their trolley numbers, while Cork had not.

Cork University Hospital (CUH) is one of the worst hospitals in the country for the number of patients on trolleys, despite having the highest level of staff recruitment “by some distance”, health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has said.

Comparing the demands and resources of Dublin’s Beaumont and St James’s hospitals with those of CUH, she questioned why Cork had failed to improve its services and reduce trolley numbers when other hospitals had made progress.

“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, ie Cork, have had the highest recruitment,” she told the Dáil.

The minister also criticised CUH for not allocating sufficient resources to staff a CT scanner.

Ms Carroll MacNeill was answering Leaders’ Questions in the absence of Tánaiste Simon Harris, who is on paternity leave.

Figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation’s (INMO) daily trolley watch showed that 531 patients were waiting for beds in hospitals across the country on Thursday morning. Of these, 351 were in emergency departments and 180 were on wards elsewhere in hospitals.

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 on Thursday.

Sinn Féin calls for increased recruitment

Sinn Féin’s Pearse 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.

He also raised concerns about services in the Mid-West, where he said there were 350 vacant posts.

“Are you going to immediately fund and empower health regions to fill urgent, clinically prioritised vacancies and remove the barriers blocking recruitment?” he asked.

Ms Carroll MacNeill told Mr Doherty that increased recruitment in some areas, including Cork, had not led to improved services or fewer patients on trolleys.

She argued that some hospitals which had received the same number of new posts as CUH had successfully reduced trolley numbers, while Cork had not.

She said the number of patients on trolleys at University Hospital Limerick had fallen from an average of 100 to 36.

“Cork, another place where there's been an articulation of patient safety and recruitment challenge, 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.

“But there were 11 beds vacant in the South Infirmary. There were 15 beds vacant in the South Infirmary [on Thursday]. We opened a new community nursing unit there just last week, where there are 35 new spaces.

“We've increased spaces in Mallow Hospital from 37 to 90, and I'm pleased to say that all of those spaces in Mallow are now used.”

Minister questions why Cork lags behind Dublin hospitals

Ms Carroll MacNeill said 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”, noting that the Dublin hospital had nine patients on trolleys, compared with 44 in Cork.

“You tell me why James's, one of the biggest, busiest hospitals in this country, in an area of particular socio-economic disadvantage [in Dublin], why they have 10 people on trolleys, notwithstanding the pressures that they face, but Cork has 44?

“The reality is that many hospitals have improved significantly over this year, but there are about six or seven hospitals that have not.” 

Responding to Labour’s Marie Sherlock later in Leaders’ Questions, Ms Carroll MacNeill also criticised CUH’s CT scanning capacity.

Ms Sherlock said CT scanners in Cork were “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?” she asked.

“Because Beaumont did.”