Long-awaited surgical 'hub' at CUH closed soon after opening – and has only treated handful of patients

A recently-opened €90m surgical hub at Cork University Hospital was forced to close immediately for two weeks over potential air-contamination issues – and has only treated a handful of patients since.

The hub was officially opened by Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll McNeill and the Taoiseach on September 28, two years later than planned.

The new hub, which had been earmarked to carry out a high-volume of low-complexity elective surgical procedures, in order to ease waiting list pressures, closed almost immediately after opening, after failing environmental testing. It only reopened on October 12.

However, sources suggested that less than 10 patients have been seen at the hub since its reopening, due to staffing and recruitment issues.

The hub consists of four operating theatres, outpatient consultation rooms, minor procedure rooms, patient assessment and recovery areas, and dedicated staff facilities.

A spokesperson for the HSE said that clinical activity at the hub “was temporarily paused to complete additional building-related operational checks as part of the commissioning process” and that dedicated recruitment had been ongoing since January, with no redeployments from CUH or other HSE sites.

It comes after two years of delays and an ongoing battle between hospital management and the minister over staffing.

The CUH surgical hub was initially due to open in 2024. However, this was pushed out to two dates in 2025, then to June 2026, before finally opening in September of this year.

It comes as 34,281 people are awaiting procedures in CUH, while a planned elective hospital in Glanmire, where construction was set to start this year and finish by 2027, will not now be “shovel ready” until 2030.  The hospital had 58 people on trolleys on Tuesday.

Staffing

Unions said in August that the delays in opening the CUH surgical hub were due to staffing, and the HSE clarified at the time that it would open “in line with the available staffing complement, with additional capacity being introduced as further posts are filled”.

During the period of closure, the Minister described the hub as “staffed and ready to service patients”, in an exchange with Social Democrats TD  Pádraig Rice, during which she also accused CUH of recruiting “twice as many people as it had budget provision for” that year – 233.

However, CUH chief executive Jennifer Kearney has said that more than 120 of these posts were for the surgical hub only.

Social Democrats TD Liam Quaide, a former CUH employee, told The Echo: “There is a sharp contrast between the fanfare surrounding the surgical hub and the wider under-resourcing of healthcare services in Cork.

“Meanwhile, Minister Carroll MacNeill continues to deflect blame onto CUH management, dismissing warnings about staffing shortages and patient safety.” 

The Minister did not reply to a request for comment.