HEALTH MINISTER JENNIFER Carroll MacNeill has been heavily criticised over hospital overcrowding and safe staffing levels. 

Hospital overcrowding reached its highest level in nearly four years last week, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO). 

During a debate on a Sinn Féin motion on the issue, the health minister was also criticised for public comments she had made about Cork University Hospital (CUH).

Sinn Féin’s health spokesperson David Cullinane said hospital staff are bracing themselves for a difficult number of months ahead, with staff telling him that things are getting worse, not better. 

The motion this evening comes days after Cork University Hospital (CUH) chief executive, Jennifer Kearney, wrote a letter to her superiors raising what she described as ongoing staff vacancies at CUH and associated patient risks. 

Labour’s Alan Kelly commended her “courage” in speaking out, stating he had serious concerns about reports in The Irish Times that the offices of the Taoiseach and minister for health instructed a senior HSE executive to “have some very specific conversations” with the Cork hospital chief. 

Kelly said that is not the kind of country we want to live in, stating that he would like to hear more from the hospital boss. 

‘Honeymoon is over’ 

He said the “honeymoon is certainly over” for the health minister, stating that we are heading into a serious winter of discontent

Cullinane said when red flags are raised that priority posts are not being filled, he expects the minister to commit to more resources, but instead he said “you put it back on hospital management”. 

“You can’t pass the buck all the time,” Cullinane told the health minister, telling her she had to take some responsibility for overcrowding, mounting wait lists and posts not being filled. 

“The buck ultimately stops with you minister,” he said. 

Social Democrats TD Pádraig Rice said the minister needs to start listening to real patient experiences, adding that too many graduate nurses have been left in limbo, with vacancies and unfilled posts right across the health system. 

Social Democrats TD Liam Quaide said leadership requires listening to people with humility, something he said has been completely lacking in the health minister’s treatment of CUH. 

Commenting on the Fine Gael ard fheis taking place in Cork this weekend, Quaide encouraged the minister to take two hours to meet nine clinical directors of CUH who wrote to the Taoiseach to ask him to intervene. 

Quaide said the minister, in her treatment of CUH, is damaging her own party in Cork, particularly if she continues to deprive the hospital of staff. 

He also hit out at the minister for praising some hospitals and castigating others. 

Patients on trolleys

Defending her position, Carroll MacNeill said today at 8am, there were 454 patients waiting on trolleys for admission to an emergency department, which she said is lower than the 544 on the same day last week, but higher than the 375 patients recorded on Monday.

“That’s too high. That is a number that is greater than the demand increase, and we have to acknowledge that,” she said. 

She defended comparing hospitals and their performance, stating that of the 29 hospitals, 17 have a ‘green’ status and eight hospitals have absolutely zero people on trolleys.

“50% of all of the patients on trolleys today come from five hospitals. So in that context, it’s very relevant to make comparisons… there are 34 people in the whole Dublin North East region, which includes Beaumont and the Mater, two really busy hospitals… there’s 44 in St Vincent’s Hospital. So comparisons do matter, because it matters how we measure progress,” she told the Dáil.