Cork minister says end of HSE recruitment ban could see reduction in hospital waiting lists 

The lifting of the HSE recruitment embargo, announced yesterday, could see a reduction in waiting lists for treatment in Cork hospitals, minister of State in the Department of Health and Cork North Central TD Colm Burke has told The Echo.

The announcement made by HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster reverses the decision made last October to impose a recruitment freeze. The waiting lists for both inpatients and outpatients seeking treatment in Cork hospitals have increased, according to the June figures, compared to those issued for May.

Figures

According to figures released last weekend, there were 31,177 adults and 6,037 children on the waiting list for outpatient treatment at Cork University Hospital, with 5,293 awaiting treatment for more than 18 months.

The South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital outpatient figures report 25,774 adults and 2,953 children awaiting treatment. The figures for Mercy University Hospital awaiting outpatient treatment were 5,842 adults and 181 children, with 775 adults on the waiting list for over 18 months.

The figures for Bantry General Hospital showed there are 836 people awaiting outpatient treatment while the figure in Mallow General Hospital is 3,734 adults and 557 children, with 124 adults and 32 children on the list for over 18 months.

In terms of the waiting list for in-patients treatment, there were 4,196 adults and 387 children awaiting treatment in the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital while there were 1,552 adults on the waiting list for beds in CUH, with a further 274 children awaiting treatment.

Positive

According to Mr Burke, the announcement of an extra €1.5bn for the HSE for this year with a further €1.2bn earmarked for next year would have a positive impact on waiting lists which, he said, were being reduced in some treatment areas.

He expressed concern, however, over revelations there had been a reduction of more than one third in the number of people receiving outpatient treatment since 2016.

“The number of people seeking outpatient treatment has declined despite there being 45,000 extra staff in the HSE,” said Mr Burke, referring to the increase in HSE staff from 103,000 in 2014 to 145,000 in 2024.

“The question that now needs to be asked is what is the cause of this — what needs to be done to address it?

“Remember the population has increased, we’ve gone from 3.5m to 5.3m people in a short enough period of time, which is over a 40% increase,” he said.

Damage

According to Thomas Gould, Sinn Féin TD in Cork North Central, the recruitment freeze should never have been implemented, as it has caused significant damage.

“The embargo made matters much worse,” he said. “Cork University Hospital, for instance, is consistently among the hospitals with the highest number of people on trolleys. There needs to be a sense of urgency in terms of recruiting staff. The proof will be in the number of people recruited and how long it takes.”

Mr Burke countered the Sinn Féin TD’s suggestion that the ending of the recruitment embargo was a cynical pre-election exercise.

“What Tommy Gould doesn’t acknowledge is that there were over 8,500 people taken on last year, which was 4,500 people above what was targeted, so additional people were taken to deal with the demands, and that’s basically what occurred.”