My Department, along with the Department of Education and Science and the Higher Education Authority, is currently addressing the issue of radiography staff shortages within the public health sector in the context of the provision of additional places on existing radiography courses. This has resulted in an increase of 150%, which is an additional 15 places, in the number of therapeutic radiography places in Trinity College Dublin this year and discussions are continuing regarding the provision of additional places in 2002. The Expert Group Report on Radiography Grades, published in July 2001, endorses this important step and reaffirms the need to assess the requirement to further increase student places. The report also includes a number of key recommendations to improve career structure, boost retention and promote continuing professional development.
A joint union and management radiography service review is currently examining how the provision of radiotherapy services can be improved to ensure the best use of trained personnel. I am aware that a six-fold increase, that is, approximately 160, in the level of overseas recruitment has taken place over the past year to address difficulties in filling current vacancies. In order to facilitate this development, my Department is working to streamline the process of validation of foreign qualifications and is continuing to identify and address any impediments to successful recruitment.
BreastCheck, the National Breast Screening Programme, as with many other sectors of the health services, has found it extremely difficult to recruit sufficient specialised radiographers. This shortage of staff has meant that the programme has been unable to screen women as quickly as anticipated. BreastCheck recognised this difficulty some time ago and took a number of initiatives to address this shortage, including running both national and international recruitment campaigns. This has resulted in the recruitment of additional radiographers to the programme and two-thirds of the radiographer posts within the BreastCheck programme are currently filled. BreastCheck continues to explore other recruitment possibilities and reports that the targets achieved in all other areas are exemplary in comparison with breast screening programmes in Holland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.