New report highlights staffing shortfall at Cork University Hospital

STAFFING levels at Cork University Hospital (CUH) increased at a lower rate than every other acute hospital in Ireland, a new report shows.

The Department of Health released ‘An Examination of Trends in Activity, Expenditure and Workforce in Publicly Funded Acute Hospitals in Ireland’ report this week, which compares hospitals under a number of metrics.

The report shows that the workforce increased by 30% in Mercy Hospital during the 2016-2022 period, but increased by just 17% in CUH — the smallest percentage increase in the country, and considerably below the national average of 31%.

Colm Porter, assistant director of industrial relations at the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, said CUH is “really an outlier” when it came to the loss of staff, adding that the increasing complexity of patient needs during this time also “makes the work more challenging than it previously was”.

The amount of staff, which is measured by ‘wholetime equivalents’ (WTEs), noted that CUH saw the most significant loss of staff, and was one of only three hospitals with any form of reduction.

The loss of 80 nursing and midwifery staff was offset by increases in other areas including doctors, support, and admin staff leaving the hospital, with an overall increase of 320 during the time period, lower than the 385 increase seen in Cork’s Mercy Hospital, which is less than half its size.

Breakdown

A staffing breakdown further shows that CUH had an above-average level of management and admin staff, but a below-average level of support staff.

This has knock-on effects on the patients, with CUH being the only hospital not to see its level of staff per bed increase during the six-year period reported.

While Mercy University Hospital Cork had the highest national number of clinically aligned staff per bed in 2022, at 4.7, CUH was the second lowest nationally, at 3.

Numbers in the Mercy had increased significantly from 2016, with their numbers rising from 3.5 to 4.7, and similar increases were seen in every other hospital in the report, with only CUH’s numbers falling from 2016 levels of 3.4 to 3.

CUH saw a €162m increase in expenditure, representing a 59% nominal increase and a 37% real (inflation-adjusted) increase, while expenditure increased by €55m in the Mercy, a nominal increase of 74% and a real increase of 50%.

Hospital beds

The report also looked at new hospital beds between 2016 and 2022 and found that CUH had seen an additional 92 beds, the third-highest in Ireland. South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital saw an additional 31, while Mallow Hospital lost 17 beds, the Mercy lost two, and Bantry Hospital lost four beds.

A spokesperson for the hospital told The Echo: “CUH have advised that there has been significant investment and an increase in many staff groups across CUH in recent years.

“However, they recognise that there appears to be a historic underinvestment in services compared with peers and other parts of the country.

“CUH is working with the HSE to address the inequity that currently exists when comparing resources with activity.”

Colm Porter said there has been unprecedented population growth in the last four years, leading to the overcrowding in CUH.

“We have seen, year-on- year, record numbers of patients on trolleys — individuals sick enough to be admitted to hospital but there is no bed for them.

“There is huge pressure created on the system, and for people who are at the start of their career, many of them are voting with their feet, travelling to the UK, Australia, and America, and the fear at the moment is that they won’t come back.”