{"id":679410,"date":"2026-11-09T10:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T10:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/679410\/"},"modified":"2026-11-09T10:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T10:22:11","slug":"hospital-at-centre-of-staffing-and-funding-row-faced-risk-of-quarterly-e300000-fines-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/679410\/","title":{"rendered":"Hospital at centre of staffing and funding row faced risk of quarterly \u20ac300,000 fines \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cork hospital<\/a> at the centre of a staffing and funding row faced a risk of fines of more than \u20ac300,000 per quarter due to non-compliance with laws around working time, its regional health chief warned.<\/p>\n

Cork University Hospital<\/a> (CUH) has been under intense scrutiny in recent months after its chief executive wrote to the Health Service Executive<\/a> (HSE) raising concerns about patient safety risks arising from staffing restrictions.<\/p>\n

The hospital had hired above its allocated staff count this year, health officials have said, and had been placed under tighter recruitment controls to reduce overspending.<\/p>\n

In a draft memo on July 20th, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, Andy Phillips, regional executive officer, wrote to Priscilla Lynch, the integrated healthcare area manager for the Cork South and West, about staffing.<\/p>\n

He said there were \u201cimmediate funding requirements\u201d for contractually committed non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHD), and he raised concerns about compliance with the Organisation of Working Time Act (OWTA).<\/p>\n

The Act sets out strict statutory limits on working hours, mandatory rest periods, and record-keeping. <\/p>\n

Phillips said \u201call contractually-committed NCHD posts are to immediately be processed and entered onto payroll by the people team\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe necessary funding for these posts will be identified through reductions in NCHD overtime,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018People will die\u2019: The secret recording, the Taoiseach and turmoil at Cork\u2019s main hospitalOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cAccordingly, please urgently work with CUH to develop and immediately implement a plan to absorb the cost of these additional NCHD posts through a reduction in NCHD overtime expenditure and other appropriate workforce controls.\u201d<\/p>\n

He outlined \u201cparticular actions\u201d to be taken by CUH, including putting in a process for overtime, ensuring rostering complies with union agreements and strengthening \u201croster management and workforce planning arrangements to ensure sustainable service delivery\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current rostering, overtime, non-compliance with NCHD agreement, non-compliance with OWTA and expenditure at CUH is not sustainable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe appointment of the additional NCHDs supports the requirement to achieve compliance with working time requirements while reducing associated overtime costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cPlease note that the current non-compliance at CUH will garner fines imposed by HSE Centre of over 300,000 euro per quarter on CUH if unresolved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if these fines had been imposed, a spokeswoman for HSE South and South West said the region, including CUH, \u201chas not been subject to findings of non-compliance in relation to the Organisation of Working Time Act\u201d.<\/p>\n

The memo was sent a month before a heated meeting<\/a> between Phillips, CUH chief executive Jennifer Kearney and senior clinical directors at the hospital on August 20th.<\/p>\n

During the meeting, Phillips said he had been instructed by the Taoiseach\u2019s office and the Minister for Health\u2019s office to have some \u201cvery specific conversations\u201d with Kearney after her patient safety concerns were leaked to the media.<\/p>\n

Kearney had said the hospital was short 1,000 staff and raised concerns about the sustainability of the service moving into the winter period, which is typically busier.<\/p>\n

Following reports in The Irish Times last week, Phillips recanted the statements<\/a> about political interference and apologised \u201cunreservedly\u201d.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Taoiseach said he takes \u201cvery seriously the false assertion that he said anything of this nature\u201d.<\/p>\n

Opposition politicians have criticised recent events. Labour Senator Laura Harmon called for \u201caccountability for what happened at that meeting, transparency about what was communicated to Government, and meaningful action on the staffing concerns raised by CUH management\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately the staffing concerns at CUH have not been addressed and patient safety is at risk,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Friction between Cork hospital and HSE region over staffing and spending goes back monthsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

P\u00e1draig Rice, Social Democrats\u2019 health spokesman, said the Taoiseach \u201cmisled the D\u00e1il\u201d on two occasions last week about the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis raises serious concerns for the Taoiseach. For a start, why was he so happy to contradict the official minutes of this meeting without apparently having consulted with anyone from CUH who had attended the meeting?\u201d<\/p>\n

Rice added that the Taoiseach must explain \u201cwhen he sought clarification from the HSE about what was stated at this meeting and what exactly he was told\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cork hospital at the centre of a staffing and funding row faced a risk of fines of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[46,27121,50043,103,397,1418,396,2120,61,60,1843],"class_list":["post-679410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-cork","tag-cork-university-hospital","tag-cork-university-hospital-cuh","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-health-service-executive-hse","tag-healthcare","tag-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-micheal-martin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679410","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=679410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}