HSE appoints senior manager to lead focused improvement programme at CUH

Priscilla Lynch, the HSE’s Integrated Healthcare Area (IHA) manager for Cork South and West, has begun a “focused programme of improvement” at Cork University Hospital (CUH).

While Ms Lynch remains in her IHA role, Sonya Cotter, the IHA manager for Cork North and East and regional lead for acute hospitals, has been assigned to provide dedicated performance support to CUH, a decision announced by HSE CEO Anne O’Connor in response to the hospital’s operational and financial challenges.

Background to the intervention

Last week nine CUH clinical directors wrote to Taoiseach Micheál Martin highlighting ongoing staffing shortages, echoing concerns raised earlier this summer by CUH chief executive Jennifer Kearney in a letter to Ms Lynch. Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeil has responded by stating the hospital has recruited twice as many staff as budgeted.

Cork East Social Democrat TD Liam Quaide, a former CUH employee, warned that moving managers will not solve the “impossible position” created by government recruitment restrictions, stressing the need for staff to maintain services and patient safety.

Labour senator Laura Harmon added that hospital leaders must feel confident to raise risks openly, warning that any suggestion of “performance management” action for speaking out could deter staff from reporting concerns.

Source: Irish Examiner. Photo: Jim Ward / Pexels.