Health minister says no evidence of increased patient safety concerns at Cork University Hospital
The health minister has said there is no evidence of an increase in serious patient safety concerns at Cork University Hospital (CUH). Picture Dan Linehan
The health minister has said there is no evidence of an increase in serious patient safety concerns at Cork University Hospital (CUH).
It comes as Hiqa wrote to the hospital querying potential health and safety issues following serious concerns raised by its chief executive last week.
Jennifer Kearney, CUH chief executive, along with senior consultants, wrote to regional management in HSE South West last week, raising serious safety concerns linked to staff shortages and recruitment delays.
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said she was not dismissing the patient safety concerns and said she is “personally notified of patient safety incidents” which come to her at “different times of the day”.
She said that as soon as she saw the letter come into the public domain, she checked with the National Patient Safety Office to see if there were any markers that would be visible in an unsafe environment. These include unexplained falls and pressure sores.
"I am happy to reassure that we have not seen any such increase, nor have we had communication to the National Patient Safety Office or to HIQA about safety concerns," she told RTÉ's on Wednesday.
"I do have to say that the South West region generally has hired more people in this year than any other region. In fact, they are over their budget, significantly over their budget.
"I have to compare that to the region besides them in Limerck where you have a very, very busy hospital with much higher emergency department presentations than in Cork, though I do acknowledge Cork is very, very busy.
"But Limerick is within its budget and has hired and maintained its budget, which is finite this year," Ms Carroll McNeill added.
The health minister added that Cork has had a “very significant increase in staffing” in the last five to six years of more than 40%, alongside a budget increase of 108%.
"I am sorry to say that the increased activity is only 16% and there is more to do in Cork to get the best value and the best deployment of all of the resources that is has been given. There is a complexity to it within this region, it is dramatically over budget," she added.
The letter from CUH’s chief executive also claimed that 172 essential posts need to be filled before the winter to uphold patient safety during that period.
The health minister said it is for Cork to make “decisions as to what those priority posts” are within its own budget.
"I would suggest radiology is a priority, [...] but I am not the hospital manager. I am the minister looking at the whole country and looking at the comparative analysis of how resources are being used," Ms Carroll McNeill added.
"I have highlighted Cork University Hospital has consistent difficulty and one that has not managed to get on top of patient flow in the way that I can compare other hospitals that have within the same 12-18 months I have been minister.
"I've seen different performances and different levels of consistency achieved for the benefit of patients and there is more to do in the South West generally," she added.
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