{"id":662957,"date":"2026-10-23T08:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T08:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/662957\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T08:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T08:44:08","slug":"health-minister-takes-aim-at-cuh-the-reality-is-there-are-some-hospitals-that-have-not-improved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/662957\/","title":{"rendered":"Health minister takes aim at CUH: ‘The reality is there are some hospitals that have not improved’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has again taken aim at Cork University Hospital (CUH)<\/a>, questioning why trolley numbers remain so bad when recruitment is the \u201chighest by some distance of any hospital in this country\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Carroll MacNeill, the Fine Gael TD for Dun Laoghaire, compared CUH to Dublin hospitals, St James\u2019 and Beaumont, which she argued have similar demands and resources but are performing better.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is that there are some hospitals that have not improved, that need to improve, and bizarrely, the ones that consistently don’t improve, Cork, have had the highest recruitment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The ministers\u2019 comments come just days after Jennifer Kearney, chief executive of CUH, again raised patient safety concerns at the hospital due to a lack of resources, warning that the situation is \u201cgetting worse\u201d, and CT scanners are \u201cgathering dust\u201d due to widespread job vacancies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ms Carroll MacNeill was taking leaders\u2019 questions in the D\u00e1il when she was asked about trolley numbers by Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> TD Pearse Doherty.<\/p>\n

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) revealed that 531 patients were waiting for beds in hospitals across the country yesterday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of these, 351 were in emergency departments, and 180 were on wards elsewhere in hospitals.<\/p>\n

At CUH, 52 patients were on trolleys, including 45 in the emergency department.<\/p>\n

The HSE\u2019s trolley figures, which are compiled differently, recorded 44 patients on trolleys at CUH.<\/p>\n

Mr 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.<\/p>\n

Ms Carroll MacNeill told the D\u00e1il that recruitment in some areas, including Cork, had not led to improved services or fewer patients on trolleys.<\/p>\n

She argued that some hospitals that had received the same number of new posts as CUH had successfully reduced trolley numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cCork, another place where there’s been an articulation of patient safety and recruitment challenges, has had 233 people just recruited into the hospital,\u201d Ms Carroll MacNeill told the D\u00e1il.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s the highest by some distance of any hospital in this country. Yet there are 40 to 44 people on trolleys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Differing performance<\/p>\n

She also questioned why CUH was lagging behind Dublin hospitals, arguing that Beaumont Hospital and CUH faced the \u201csame demand pressures\u201d, had both recruited staff, and had the same needs up to 2027.<\/p>\n

She questioned why Beaumont\u2019s performance was \u201cdifferent to Cork\u201d, with just nine people on trolleys compared to 44.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou tell me why James’, one of the biggest, busiest hospitals in this country, in an area of particular socio-economic disadvantage, why they have 10 people on trolleys, notwithstanding the pressures that they face, but Cork has 44?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is that many hospitals have improved significantly over this year, but there are about six or seven hospitals that have not.\u201d <\/p>\n

Labour TD Marie Sherlock also raised concerns about CT scanners in CUH \u201clying idle\u201d because of a \u201clack of sanctioned staff\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, Ms Carroll MacNeill suggested the problem lay in how CUH was allocating its resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cCork University Hospital has hired 233 people. Why has it not prioritised resources for that CT scanner? Because Beaumont did,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

‘Stepping back in time’<\/p>\n

The minister’s criticism of Cork comes just days after Ms Kearney told the Irish Hospital Consultants Association that moving back to Ireland after working in the British health system is like \u201cstepping back in time\u201d.<\/p>\n

She had previously written to HSE leadership warning about gaps in care because of staffing shortages.<\/p>\n

Ms Kearney said the situation in CUH is \u201cgetting worse” and that only seven posts have been approved for CUH, warning that the \u201cgap is getting wider\u201d between what is needed and what they have.<\/p>\n

She acknowledged CUH has hired new staff, saying more than 120 of these roles were for the new surgical hub, and warned that the hospital is \u201coverspending\u201d on agency staff to fill gaps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has again taken aim at Cork University Hospital (CUH), questioning why trolley numbers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[129137,79,103,397,396,61,60],"class_list":["post-662957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-cuh","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\/662957","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=662957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}