{"id":608345,"date":"2026-08-29T14:26:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T14:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/608345\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T14:26:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T14:26:47","slug":"hiqa-seeks-clarity-over-cork-university-hospital-safety-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/608345\/","title":{"rendered":"Hiqa seeks clarity over Cork University Hospital safety fears\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The health watchdog has written to Cork University Hospital (CUH) querying potential health and safety issues in the wake of serious concerns raised by its chief executive last week.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/news\/munster\/arid-41898457.html\">The hospital\u2019s chief executive<\/a>, Jennifer Kearney, followed by <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/news\/munster\/arid-41899216.html\">senior consultants<\/a>, wrote to the regional management in HSE Southwest last week. They raised serious safety concerns linked to staff shortages and delays with recruitment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">After concerns were aired in the media, the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) wrote to CUH querying the reports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">A spokesman confirmed Hiqa has written to CUH, saying it is seeking clarification on what was reported. It is awaiting a response from the hospital before any decisions are taken around follow-up action, he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Part of Hiqa\u2019s role is overseeing hospitals, and it has been closely involved, for example, in efforts to support change at <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/news\/munster\/arid-41891569.html\">University Hospital Limerick<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Hiqa inspectors visited CUH and compiled a report in March of last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">This found the emergency department was seeing \u201chigh levels of activity and, in accordance with the hospital\u2019s escalation plan, was classified as being in red escalation\u201d on the day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Inspectors recorded \u201cadditional challenges\u201d for the site, including limited availability of suitable community rehabilitation, transitional, and step-down beds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">They recorded challenges for staff in organising enough home-care support for patients returning home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThis was consistent with Hiqa\u2019s previous inspection in 2023. As a result, 25 patients experienced delays in their transfer of care on the day,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Overall, the report concluded that while the system was being well-managed, it found a \u201csignificant mismatch between the demand for health services and the availability of beds at the hospital\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">It also noted \u201cscope for improvement\u201d in data monitoring and collection, which could improve patients\u2019 experiences.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">CUH has been consistently under pressure, said Ms Kearney, who warned in her letter of staff shortages coming to over 1,000 people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI believe that process is creating a foreseeable risk to patients and staff,\u201d she wrote. \u201cI would rather raise that concern now, when there is still an opportunity to act, than remain silent and explain afterwards why we did not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>                Niamh Griffin, Health Correspondent\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The health watchdog has written to Cork University Hospital (CUH) querying potential health and safety issues in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[129137,79,103,397,4892,396,61,60],"class_list":["post-608345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-cuh","tag-cork-news","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-health-news","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}