A major review of consultant staffing in the Southern Health Board area was carried out by Comhairle na nOspidéal in 1993. Overall, the Comhairle report identified a need for significant expansion in consultant manpower for Cork, including joint appointments between Cork University Hospital and the voluntary hospitals in Cork City. In its report of the review of consultant manpower in the Southern Health Board area, Comhairle identified a lack of consensus between the various institutions in Cork City on the components of a hospital development policy for the city and its environs as a critical factor in the slow progress in creating and filling consultant posts and the disproportionate number of appointments sanctioned for the area, relative to other health boards. The need to develop consensus on the development of services between the health board and the voluntary hospitals in the Southern Health Board area was a central theme of the Comhairle report. A pan-hospital structure, operating under the chairmanship of the Dean of Medicine, UCC was recommended as an appropriate vehicle to facilitate the development of consensus and this has now been established.
Arising from the deliberations of the pan-hospital arrangements, the management of the Cork hospitals identified specific consultant posts to be filled over the short-term. The immediate priorities identified were submitted jointly by the SHB and the voluntary hospitals and these are, in order of priority: medical Oncologist-joint appointment — CUH/Mercy Hospital/South Infirmary — Victoria Hospital; histopathologist, Mercy Hospital; cardiologist, South Infirmary — Victoria Hospital/Cork University Hospital, A&E consultant, joint appointment — CUH/Mercy Hospital/South Infirmary — Victoria Hospital.
Funding has been provided by the Department of Health and Children in respect of all these posts. Approval has also issued to the Mercy Hospital for the filling of a post of consultant paediatrician on a locum basis, pending final agreement on the joint department of paediatrics in the Cork hospitals.
In addition to the pan-hospital posts, the following formal requests for sanction for additional consultant posts have been received by the Department of Health and Children: histopathologist, CUH; neurosurgeon CUH; plastic surgeon, joint appointment with South Infirmary — Victoria, anaesthetist, joint appointment CUH/Erinville/St. Finbarr's.
There have been no requests for additional consultant posts in respect of other acute hospitals in the Southern Health Board area.
