Cork University Hospital spent €19m on agency staff last year

Cork University Hospital (CUH) spent €19m on agency staff last year.

This year, so far, the hospital spent €1.68m in January, €1.69m in February, and €1.85m in March, for a total of €5,223,000, according to figures provided by the health minister recently.

The CUH total is just below University Hospital Limerick’s, at €6.14m, but above the other seven model-four hospitals in Ireland.

Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeil said: “Agency costs in the healthcare sector are an ongoing matter of attention for both the Department of Health and the HSE. This is reflected in the commitment in the HSE’s 2026 National Service Plan to reduce agency cost to no more than €720m.”

Ms Carroll MacNeil said that steps to address this commitment were outlined in last December’s HSE Agency Control Framework.

The framework includes controls for the authorisation of agency use, controls on the use of agency staff from agencies that are not on tender framework panels, the use of agency staff for exceptional circumstances, oversight of recruitment, the use of recruitment to reduce the reliance on agency staff, and alignment with national standards on agency use.

Ms Carroll MacNeil added: “The framework seeks to reduce reliance on agency staffing, whilst simultaneously managing quality services through a more balanced use of direct staffing, overtime, and agency staffing.”

But despite these interventions, agency spend in CUH will likely rise about 7%, to nearly €21m, this year.

FIGURES

Figures released last week, following a parliamentary question, showed that €19.1m was spent on agency staff in Cork University Hospital in 2025, down just slightly from €19.5m in 2024.

The figures for the first quarter of this year equate to an average spend of €1.7m a month on agency staff, meaning the monthly average is up from both last year and from 2024.

If the monthly average remains in place, it suggests that the 2026 agency staffing total will be over €20.8m.

A HSE spokesperson said: “The available supply in the labour market for health workforce continues to be a challenge.

“This is not unique to Ireland, but rather a global health workforce challenge. Recruitment and retention of clinical, nursing, and other key staff is a constant challenge and impacts adversely on the ability to maintain safe and effective services.”

They added that, at times, the HSE has been unable to fill a vacancy, even via agency staff.

“The agencies have indicated that they are experiencing difficulty in recruiting themselves, due to a lack of availability and also accommodation availability and costs.”