Concerns mount Cork University Hospital over surgical hub staffing levels 

The HSE has confirmed that it still intends to open the Cork University Hospital (CUH) surgical hub next month, but the hub will only open partially at first, as not all posts will be filled on time.

Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation assistant director of industrial relations, Cork’s Liam Conway, told The Echo last week that the hospital “doesn’t have enough staff to open the surgical hub”.

Mr Conway was responding to a letter by CUH chief executive Jennifer Kearney in which she outlined grave concerns about the number of staff in the hospital leading up to the busy winter period.

Consultants at CUH have now demanded an independent assessment of staff numbers after health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill yesterday denied there were safety issues and insisted that management is not managing its resources properly.

Ms Carroll O’Neill claimed that the HSE South West region has hired more people during this year than any other region, and that it is significantly over its budget.

While speaking on RTÉ, Ms Carroll MacNeill also claimed that:

• Hospitals in Limerick, where emergency department presentations are much higher, are within budget and have hired and maintained within budget;
• 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%;
• There is more to do in Cork to get the best value and the best deployment of all of the resources that it has been given.

Voice support

In the wake of the interview, the CUH consultant staff committee wrote to the minister and HSE chief executive Anne O’Connor to voice support for the hospital chief executive’s stance.

“The consultant body is fully behind the CUH chief executive Jennifer Kearney when she insists we are at least 600 bodies shy of what the hospital needs, and not 250 over,” they wrote.

The CUH surgical hub was initially due to open in 2024, however this was pushed to 2025, then to Q4 2025, before being delayed again to Q2 2026.

In May 2026, the opening was postponed once more, from June 2026 to September 2026, roughly two years’ slippage from the original target.

Asked by The Echo if the HSE could confirm that the hub was still on track to open late next month a spokesperson said: “The HSE South West Surgical Hub will be based at Cork University Hospital as part of the National Elective Care Programme.

“It remains the ambition of the region to open and operationalise the hub by late September 2026.” 

Further questions

Further questions about if staffing had delayed the opening of the facility up until now and how many staff were needed to open the surgical hub were not answered, but the spokesperson said: “Recruitment to support the opening and operation of the surgical hub is ongoing.

“The staffing requirements for the hub span a range of clinical and support roles. The hub will open in line with the available staffing complement, with additional capacity being introduced as further posts are filled.” 

In her letter to HSE South West’s integrated healthcare area manager Priscilla Lynch, Ms Kearney said that hundreds of roles which were required to open the hub were vacant.

Detailing a total staffing gap of more than 1,050, Ms Kearney said there were 202.37 whole-time equivalent vacancies compared to posts outlined in the HSE’s own national service plans (NSPs) from 2024 to 2026.

“The majority of 2026 NSP vacancies relate to the surgical hub, due to open on September 29,” she said.

Ms Kearney said in her letter that the hospital’s ability to fill these posts was being curtailed by “an increasingly bureaucratic process” through which posts have had to be constantly reprioritised.

“Services are already reducing capacity, cancelling patients, and relying on expensive temporary solutions,” Ms Kearney said.