{"id":639335,"date":"2026-09-29T08:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T08:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/639335\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T08:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T08:18:08","slug":"health-minister-says-cork-university-hospital-has-been-safe-all-year-despite-staffing-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/639335\/","title":{"rendered":"Health minister says Cork University Hospital ‘has been safe all year’, despite staffing concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has expressed confidence in the CEO of\u00a0Cork University Hospital<\/a> (CUH), while rejecting suggestions that staff shortages will make the hospital unsafe going into the winter.<\/p>\n

Last month, CUH\u2019s\u00a0Jennifer Kearney<\/a> told the HSE the hospital faced a shortage of more than 1,000 staff, with increasing safety risks as a result.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI do not believe the current position is sustainable, nor do I believe it is safe to enter the winter period with the level of staffing uncertainty that currently exists,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, Ms Carroll MacNeill told The Echo that: \u201cBy any metric that it\u2019s possible for us to have, Cork has been safe all year; it has also recruited more than any other model four hospital in the country\u201d.<\/p>\n

The health minister said that CUH had hired more than 233 people this year, which was more than any other Model 4 hospital in the country \u201cby some distance\u201d.<\/p>\n

More staff recruited<\/p>\n

A Model 4 hospital is a major, tertiary-level acute care hospital that provides a full range of 24\/7 medical, surgical, and critical care services, while also serving as a regional or national referral centre for specialised care.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been more staff recruited to CUH than any other Model 4 hospital,\u201d Ms Carroll MacNeill said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat includes Beaumont, The Mater, James\u2019s, UHL [University Hospital Limerick], and by some distance.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that more staff had been hired into the South-West region this year than any other region, including in the neighbouring Mid-West region.<\/p>\n

The minister said that when she had heard Ms Kearney\u2019s concerns ahead of the winter period, she had \u201cimmediately checked\u201d with the National Patient Safety Office, the National Mortality Register, the Health Information and Quality Authority, and the HSE\u2019s framework for safe nurse staffing and skill mix.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been no increase in any of the markers that you might expect to see in a hospital that was operating unsafely,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cSo, by every metric that it\u2019s possible for us to have, Cork has been safe all year.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

Ms Carroll MacNeill was speaking yesterday at the launch of a new surgical hub at CUH.<\/p>\n

Once fully operational, this hub is expected to deliver additional annual activity of about 8,000 day-case procedures, 5,700 minor operations, and more than 18,400 outpatient department appointments.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the launch, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said it was vital that health infrastructure meets the needs of patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy developing new facilities such as this state-of-the-art surgical hub, we are ensuring that Ireland\u2019s healthcare system is fit for the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Gloss over staffing needs<\/p>\n

Social Democrats TD Liam Quaide, a clinical psychologist who previously worked at the hospital, said it was unfortunate to hear the health minister \u201cagain make meretricious arguments about CUH\u2019s staffing spend at a press conference after the opening\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThose figures gloss over the hospital\u2019s actual staffing needs and continues to pit the Mid-West against the South-West. A minister should be uniting health regions and their staff, not scapegoating as a form of political cover.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

Labour Party senator Laura Harmon said she was \u201csceptical\u201d about Government launches of new facilities before full staffing was in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need clarity about when the surgical hub will be fully staffed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has expressed confidence in the CEO of\u00a0Cork University Hospital (CUH), while rejecting suggestions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[129137,15607,79,103,397,396,61,60],"class_list":["post-639335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-cuh","tag-cork-health","tag-cork-news","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639335","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=639335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}