Micheál Martin admits 'all is not well' at CUH

Taoiseach says he will not be 'overriding' the health minister to directly intervene amid row over staffing, overcrowding and budgets

Taoiseach Micheal Martin speaking to media at Government Buildings in Dublin ahead of a Cabinet meeting. Picture: PA

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has admitted "all is not well" at Cork University Hospital (CUH), but has said he will not be "overriding" the health minister to directly intervene.

It came as the Dáil heard "an extremely disturbing account" of the cancellation of surgeries at CUH last Thursday and Friday.

Social Democrats TD Liam Quaide outlined how emergency capacity became "overwhelmed", resulting in cancer operations being cancelled at short notice.

"Women admitted for mastectomies, some already in hospital gowns, were sent home," he said. 

Colon, brain, and prostrate cancer operations were also cancelled. Imagine the distress of those patients. 

"These are the consequences of the minister's hardline attitude to CUH and her refusal to reckon with the reality of staffing shortages and overcrowding."

Nine clinical directors of CUH last week wrote a letter to Mr Martin about ongoing staffing issues in the hospital.

Since then, health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has dismissed the concerns, repeatedly saying the hospital had hired twice as many people as had been budgeted for.

She said the “very significant” increase in the permanent workforce at the hospital and the South-West region had to be “tempered” over time as the area was “substantially over budget” due to the number of health staff recruited.

Mr Quaide, a TD for Cork East, said nobody questions the Taoiseach's attachment to CUH, but said "it is fair to question how in touch" he is in relation to staffing and other pressures.

"Increasingly he looks detached, weak, defensive on this issue and unwilling to challenge a minister for health who discredits CUH at every opportunity and is using selective recruitment and trolley figures stripped of context about demand, complexity, and long-standing staffing and bed shortages," said Mr Quaide. 

Rather than challenging the minister, the Taoiseach is providing her with political cover.

Mr Martin conceded "all is not well at CUH", adding it was "very clear to me for different reasons".

However, he said issues at the hospital must be addressed through the proper structures of the HSE.

"There cannot be alternative pathways, and I will not be overriding the HSE. I will not be overriding the minister in respect of this. I want to see a resolution of the issue, but trying to go directly over the head of the minister by meeting clinicians or whatever will not work," Mr Martin told the Dáil.

"That is not the pathway to resolving these issues."

Referring to the cancellation of cancer surgeries, Mr Martin said patient safety must always be paramount.

"What happened in respect of those cancer patients should not have happened, but the hospital needs to be managed as well," he said.