Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 140: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the steps she will take to address the Irish Nurses Organisation's claims of a staff shortage at the new Cork University Maternity Hospital; when the staff will be in place to enable the opening of the remaining beds at this hospital; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17586/07]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) is a state of the art, €75m facility which opened on 31 March 2007. It replaced three outdated maternity facilities in Cork — Erinville, St Finbarr's and the Bon Secours. The approved midwifery staffing complement for CUMH is 376 WTEs. There are currently 329 midwives in place. The hospital is being commissioned on a phased basis to match the recruitment process. There is a recruitment plan in place which includes the following—

An ongoing national recruitment drive

An international recruitment campaign

Back to Midwifery courses — one course completed in May and further courses are planned for later this summer.

31 student midwives will graduate from University College Cork in September. These students have all been offered permanent midwifery posts in CUMH and to date 27 have indicated that they will accept the offer.

Six theatre nurses commenced adaptation in early June and a further five midwives/neonatal nurses are due to commence in July.

HSE South are optimistic that the full approved midwifery complement will be achieved by the end of this year. The hospital opened with 128 beds on 31 March and this has now risen to 137. When fully commissioned the hospital will have 144 beds. The HSE expect to be in a position to fully commission the hospital in late 2007.