People at Cork University Hospital not working together effectively, says HSE chief

A point has been reached where people at Cork University Hospital (CUH) are just not working together effectively, HSE chief executive Anne O’Connor has said.

Speaking for the first time publicly following the controversy over the contents of a taped conversation between the top Health Service Executive in the south and senior figures at the hospital, O’Connor said individuals were now fearful about being recorded.

During an interview on RTÉ’s This Week programme on Sunday, she suggested a meeting involving the regional executive officer at HSE South West Andy Phillips and senior figures at CUH in August was recorded illegally.

The Irish Times reported earlier this month that official minutes of the meeting quoted Phillips as telling CUH chief executive Jennifer Kearney he had been instructed by the offices of the Taoiseach and Minister for Health “to have some very specific conversations with you”.

This came after a letter written by Kearney about the impact of recruitment restrictions on patient safety was leaked to the media.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin strongly denied that either he or his staff had ever given any such instruction to Phillips. However, he also appeared to question the official minutes in the Dáil, making reference to “inaccurate and untrue accounts of meetings”.

However, a tape of the meeting, obtained subsequently by The Irish Times, showed that the minutes were accurate in recording what the regional executive officer had said.

Phillips apologised unreservedly for his comments at the meeting and said he had not been contacted by the Taoiseach’s office.

O’Connor on Sunday said she had confidence in Phillips and suggested that his comments at the meeting were made “in a fit of frustration in terms of the discussion that went on that day”.

“I think there was frustration on the day and I think, in the heat of the moment, that was said. I wasn’t there. I can’t comment any more than that,” she said.

“Regardless of who said what [and] when, a big concern for me is the fact that we seem to have a culture that is just not working that well down there [in CUH]. The values of our organisation are care, compassion, trust, and learning. I think we need to go back to those.”

O’Connor said she had “confidence in Andy, but I’m very kind of mindful that we have an awful lot of work to do” in CUH and in the HSE South West region.

She said she would be monitoring that closely to see that those plans are being implemented.

“But if I could just go back and say, I think that in CUH, what worries me probably the most at the minute is the number of staff that I speak to in the hospital who are really very upset about what is going on, who are fearful of going to meetings because they fear they may be recorded,” she added.

“That is staff within the hospital and staff from outside the hospital going into meetings. So we have reached a point where people are just not working together effectively. And my ask of everybody is that we get into open and transparent conversations without the fear of being recorded, where clinicians can work together to deliver on the absolute requirements in terms of services.”