{"id":653692,"date":"2026-08-24T11:15:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T11:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/653692\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T11:15:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T11:15:16","slug":"watchdog-seeks-clarity-on-cork-university-hospital-health-and-safety-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/653692\/","title":{"rendered":"Watchdog seeks clarity on Cork University Hospital health and safety concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"contextmenu internal_Body1st\">The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) has written to\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.echolive.ie\/corknews\/arid-41898469.html\">Cork University Hospital<\/a> (CUH) querying potential health and safety issues in the wake of serious concerns raised by its chief executive last week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">The hospital\u2019s chief executive Jennifer Kearney and then senior consultants wrote to the regional management in HSE South West last week, raising serious safety concerns linked to staff shortages and delays with recruitment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">After the concerns were aired in the media, the health watchdog wrote to CUH querying the reports late last week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">A spokesman confirmed Hiqa had written to CUH, saying it is seeking clarification on what was reported. It is awaiting a response from the hospital before any decisions are taken around follow-up action, he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Part of Hiqa\u2019s role is overseeing hospitals and it has been closely involved, for example, in efforts to support change at University Hospital Limerick.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Hiqa inspectors previously visited CUH and compiled a report in March last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">This found that the emergency department was seeing \u201chigh levels of activity and, in accordance with the hospital\u2019s escalation plan, was classified as being in red escalation\u201d on the day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">Additional challenges<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Inspectors recorded \u201cadditional challenges\u201d for the whole site, including limited availability of suitable community rehabilitation, transitional, and step-down beds. They recorded challenges for staff in organising enough home-care support for patients returning home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cThis was consistent with Hiqa\u2019s previous inspection in 2023. As a result, 25 patients experienced delays in their transfer of care on the day,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Overall, the report concluded that while the system was being well managed, it found a \u201csignificant mismatch between the demand for health services and the availability of beds at the hospital\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">It also noted \u201cscope for improvement\u201d in data monitoring and collection, which could improve patients\u2019 experiences.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">CUH has been consistently under pressure, according to Ms Kearney, who in her letter warned of staff shortages of more than 1,000 people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cI believe that process is creating a foreseeable risk to patients and staff,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\n            \u201cI would rather raise that concern now, when there is still an opportunity to act, than remain silent and explain afterwards why we did not.\u201d\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation as well as the Irish Hospital Consultants Association also raised concerns last week in response to Ms Kearney\u2019s letter, calling for investment and immediate Government action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) has written to\u00a0Cork University Hospital (CUH) querying potential health and safety&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[275],"tags":[781,42863,25099,18,135,475,474,13842,19,17],"class_list":["post-653692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-cork-news","tag-cork-health","tag-cork-university-hospital","tag-eire","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-hiqa","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117150202401232793","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}