Written Answers. - Hospital Accommodation.
Róisín Shortall
Question:
35
Ms Shortall
asked the
Minister for Health and Children
if his attention has been drawn to the fact that up to half of the beds closed at the end of May 2001 were due to staff shortages; the steps he is taking to address this problem; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[19219/01]
The number of beds out of use on 24 May 2001 was 125. This is an improvement over the same quarter last year when 351 beds were out of use.
The figure of 125 beds out of use represents 1% of the number of designated beds in the public acute hospital system, 12,327.
In summary, of the 125 beds out of use, 54 or 43.2% were closed due to nursing shortages, 37 or 29.6% were closed due to ward refurbishment, 28 or 22.4% were closed due to temporary suspension of obstetric services, 4 or 3.2% were closed due to capital works and 2 or 1.6% were closed for unspecified reasons.
This means that less than one half of one percent of the bed stock available in the public acute hospital system was out of use due to nursing shortages according to the most recent information available to my Department.
The Health Service Employers Agency undertook a survey of nursing vacancies at 31 January 2001. The number of nursing vacancies reported was 1,315. When account is taken of the service of agency nurses, 423 per day, and overtime working, equivalent to 592 nurses per day, the net vacancy situation pertaining at 31 January 2001 stands at 300. The gross number of vacancies reported for the Eastern Regional Health Authority region, excluding the learning disability sector, was 1,148.79.
The survey shows that a total of 4,226 nurses were recruited in the year ending 31 January 2001 and that a total of 2,954 resigned-retired in the same period. Accordingly, the recruitment of nurses continues to run strongly ahead of the numbers leaving with a net increase of 1,272 nurses in the system. The number of nursing vacancies existing nationally on 30 September 2000 had fallen by 5% by 31 January 2001.
The HSEA is finalising a survey in respect of the position at the end of April 2001. This survey is expected to show a further improvement in the position.
A major new recruitment and retention initiative, costing in excess of £5 million, was launched by me in November 2000 to address the present shortage of nurses and midwives. In particular a new scheme of flexible working arrangements for nurses and midwives in the public health service came into operation on 1 February 2001. Under the scheme, individual nurses and midwives may apply to work between eight and 39 hours per week on a permanent part-time basis.
As part of my overall recruitment-retention strategy, I have introduced the following financial support for nurses and midwives undertaking post-registration educational courses: payment of fees to nurses-midwives undertaking part-time nursing and certain other undergraduate degree courses; improved scheme of financial support for student public health nurses; enhanced financial support package for student midwives and student paediatric nurses; payment of fees and enhanced salary to nurses-midwives undertaking courses in specialised areas of clinical practice; and abolition of fees for "back-to-practice" courses and payment of salary to nurses-midwives undertaking such courses.
The ongoing recruitment of nurses from abroad is also impacting positively on the vacancy situation. A total of 1,456 working visas-work authorisations were issued to nurses from non EU countries between June 2000 and May 2001.
In response to the current shortage of nurses, I increased the number of training places last year by 300, from 1,200 to 1,500. This year a further 40 additional places have been created. It is intended to maintain the annual intakes of nursing students at this level in order to ensure an adequate supply of nurses for our health service into the future.
With regard to ensuring an adequate supply of nurses and midwives to staff our health service into the future, the Commission on Nursing identified a need to strengthen the workforce planning functions in my Department. In response, my Department set up a Study of the Nursing and Midwifery Resource in December 1998. The aim of the project is to analyse the present position with regard to the nursing and midwifery workforce, to devise a system for the projection of future needs and to plan how these needs may be met. The steering group published an interim report in September 2000 and the £5 million recruitment-retention initiative announced by me on 29 November last was my immediate response to recommendations contained in the report.
The steering group has identified as an urgent priority the refinement of systems and processes used to supply essential information to ensure that forecasts for future nursing and midwifery requirement are feasible and improve over time. Highlighted in the interim report are the inadequacies of existing databases to yield reliable information on which to base forecasts. To address this, work is progressing on the development of a new personnel, payroll, attendance recruitment system, PPARS, that will capture essential data on each individual and post within the health service. The PPARS project is a fundamental building block in developing dependable, reliable and robust quality information to forecast human resource requirements for the health service in the future.
I am sure the Deputy will agree that the figures quoted above represent an improvement in the position relating to beds out of use due to nursing shortages.
In addition, the initiatives I have outlined above represent a very significant effort on behalf of my Department, health boards and hospitals to facilitate the recruitment and retention of nursing staff.
