IHCA demands immediate derogation for CUH from HSE consultant staff embargo

The IHCA has urged the HSE to immediately lift the embargo on the appointment of 24 funded hospital consultant posts at Cork University Hospital (CUH), given the significant impact of the decision on patient safety and outcomes. 

The Association has given its full support to CUH CEO Ms Jennifer Kearney, who wrote to the HSE South West earlier this week appealing for a derogation for her hospital from the current employment restrictions, and the approval of a minimum of 172 priority posts to ensure a safe service entering the winter months.

Some 24 of these posts are for hospital consultants in a range of specialties, including new permanent service development appointments, replacement posts for consultants who have resigned or retired, or temporary contracts for a number of maternity leave backfills. 

Many of the consultants were offered and accepted the posts at CUH months ago and some have agreed start dates that have already passed, according to the IHCA.

However, they have not been provided with formal contracts due to the impasse in approvals at national HSE level.

Included are consultant posts in anaesthesiology; cardiology; cardio-thoracic surgery; endocrinology; general paediatrics; general surgery; geriatrics/stroke care; haematology; immunology; nephrology; neurophysiology; neuro-radiology; obstetrics and gynaecology; paediatric emergency medicine; paediatric neurology, as well as a locum backfill for a Clinical Director. 

CUH informed the HSE that the paediatric neurology service, currently provided by a single-handed consultant on a less than whole-time equivalent contract (0.8WTE), was unsustainable for both patients and the consultants.

While a consultant from Belfast was lined up to review 30 urgent, complex children, these appointments all had to be cancelled as this temporary solution was not approved by the HSE CEO.

The IHCA said that consultant staffing deficits across such a wide range of specialties will have a dramatic impact on so many patients across the region, including children, adults and the elderly. 

IHCA CEO Mr Jim Daly commented: “Strong support is being voiced for CUH CEO Jennifer Kearney’s decision to put patient welfare ahead of administrative compliance with embargoes on medical staff that are already funded. The health system must immediately treat this unsustainable situation as an urgent patient safety and winter preparedness crisis, rather than a routine employment control issue. 

“It is unacceptable that internal HSE administrative bottlenecks are overriding agreed and approved consultant appointments and forcing existing staff to try to maintain increasingly fragile services in the face of ever-increasing demand for hospital care. 

“The embargo may also cause significant reputational damage to CUH and the wider HSE, at a time when the health service is seeking to attract consultants working abroad to return to Ireland. Put simply, the embargo on the appointment of consultants at CUH must be lifted immediately.”