CUH boss says hospital 'unsafe' for patients amid shortfall of over 1,000 staff
The CEO of Cork University Hospital has warned that the facility is unsafe due to a shortfall of over 1,000 staff members. Despite having funding for many positions, bureaucratic hurdles and recruitment suppression have left the hospital unable to provide adequate care.
Why it matters
It underscores a critical failure in public healthcare management and the human cost of administrative inefficiency in essential services.
CUH is already reducing capacity, cancelling patients, and 'relying on expensive temporary solutions', its CEO has said.
The chief executive of Cork University Hospital (CUH) has admitted the hospital is not safe ahead of the coming winter in a scathing letter over recruitment sent to the HSE.
Jennifer Kearney told Priscilla Lynch, integrated healthcare area manager for HSE South West , that the hospital is down 1,050 staff.
“My responsibility as chief executive is not simply to comply with a process," she wrote in a letter first reported on RTÉ radio.
"It is to speak clearly when I believe that process is creating a foreseeable risk to patients and staff.
"I would rather raise that concern now, when there is still an opportunity to act, than remain silent and explain afterwards why we did not.”
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