Workforce growth in Cork hospitals decreased by almost 80% last year, data shows

Workforce growth in Cork hospitals decreased by almost 80% last year, compared to during the previous one-year period, HSE data has shown.
From December 2023 to December 2024, the total staff headcount across Cork University Hospital (CUH), Mercy University Hospital (MUH), South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital, Mallow General Hospital, and Bantry General Hospital increased by just 135 — from 8,331 to 8,466.
Between December 2022 — when there were 7,667 staff — and December 2023, the increase was 664, a rise of 79.6% from the previous year.
2024 saw a recruitment embargo across the HSE but, interestingly, the Cork hospitals gained 115 staff while the embargo was in place and only 20 after it had been lifted.
Multiple hospitals saw their headcount increase in the first half of 2024, when the embargo was in place, but fall in the latter half of the year after the embargo was lifted and replaced with the “pay and numbers strategy”.
In Cork University Hospital, staff headcounts increased by 99 from 5,235 in December 2023 to 5,334 in June 2024. They then fell by 55 between June and December 2024.