Austin Currie
Question:130 Mr. Currie asked the Minister for Health and Children the steps he has taken to deal with staff shortages, the shortages of nurses in general and in the Dublin region in particular. [24510/00]
Written Answers. - Nursing Staff.
Derek McDowell
Question:213 Mr. McDowell asked the Minister for Health and Children the steps being taken to deal with the serious nursing shortage; his views on the call made by the INO for an additional payment for nurses in the Dublin area to deal with the acute shortage of nurses in the greater Dublin area; his views on the suggestion made by SIPTU that non-nursing staff could be trained to carry out certain technical nursing duties; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24544/00]
Bernard J. Durkan
Question:635 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Health and Children the extent to which or the plans he has to put in place the necessary measures to ensure the availability of adequate nursing staff in all hospitals, both public and private; if he has identified current areas of shortage in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24861/00]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 130, 213 and 635 together.
First, a nationwide survey of nursing vacancies existing at 30 September 2000 is currently being undertaken by the Health Service Employers Agency on behalf of my Department. When this survey has been completed, I will transmit the results to Deputies Currie, McDowell and Durkan. However, at this stage I can confirm that the total number of nursing vacancies in the Eastern Regional Health Authority area is 1,137. This deficit is mitigated by the employment of 366 whole-time equivalent agency nurses. The impact of the shortage is further mitigated by overtime working.
The major Dublin acute hospitals account for 41% of the vacancies in the eastern region. However, these hospitals have engaged in a successful international recruitment drive. The Mater Hospital, for example, has dramatically improved its situation over the last year. In addition to overseas recruitment, new graduates from the nursing diploma programmes will be coming on stream in the next few months. It is anticipated therefore that the overall position will have improved significantly by the end of this year.
Nationally, action is being taken across a number of fronts to try to improve the situation in terms of recruitment and retention. A number of these have already been referred to in this House and are summarised as follows: funding of £10 million to implement priority action plan for implementation of the Commission on Nursing report; new arrangements for better starting pay, standardised overtime working arrangements and a significantly improved regime of allowances; significant improvement in promotional structure within nursing since publication of the report of the Commission on Nursing and nurses' pay settlement; and up to 1,250 clinical nurse-midwife specialist positions are being introduced and refund of fees initiative for part-time degree courses, as well as midwifery and public health nurse training.
Increasing the annual intakes of nursing students is a key element of the overall strategy for addressing the current shortage of nurses. Under an agreement between the Department and the Nursing Alliance, an additional 300 training places were provided this year, bringing to 1,500 the total number of training places available. The intention is that this level of intake will be maintained in 2001 and 2002.
Some 1,500 new nursing students commenced training this month at various centres around the country, 1,000 in general nursing, 200 in mental handicap nursing and 300 in psychiatric nursing. This represents a 25% increase over last year's intake of 1,200 students, which in itself was the highest for several years. Record numbers of students have entered both psychiatric and mental handicap nurse training this year. Due to the high level of acceptances by successful applicants, some centres are oversubscribed.
There are currently 3,720 nursing students at various stages of training and we are on target to have 4,500 students in training by 2002.
In reply to Deputy Durkan's question, the Department is also engaged in strategic planning through the study of the nursing and midwifery resource. The focus of this work is on longer term planning. The primary objective of the study is to forecast as far as possible future nursing and midwifery workforce needs. I have received an interim report and this has been circulated widely within the health services. I am considering the recommendations of this report and I will soon announce further initiatives aimed at improving recruitment and retention.
In reply to Deputy McDowell's question regarding an additional payment for nurses in the Dublin area, I should explain that the only forum in which nurses' pay rates, including all allowances, can be dealt with is the benchmarking body established under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness.
The position regarding care assistants is as I told Deputy McManus in reply to a question from her on 25 October. In accordance with a recommendation of the Commission on Nursing, a working group on the effective use of the professional skills of nurses and midwives has been established. This working group comprises representatives of my Department, health service employers and nursing unions. Part of its remit involves examining opportunities for the increased use of care assistants and other non-nursing personnel in the performance of non-nursing tasks. The working group held its first meeting in May and is proceeding with its deliberations.