Vol. 555 No. 2
93 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Health and Children the extent to which he plans to ensure adequate availability of the necessary qualified medical, surgical and other staff in all hospitals throughout the country; if he has satisfied himself that adequate staff will continue to be readily available to all hospitals in view of increased demands, particularly in view of increased workloads; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18107/02]
I have initiated a number of measures to estimate the number of doctors and nurses required by our hospital service over the next decade and beyond. In relation to the numbers of hospital doctors the Deputy will be aware that I established a national task force on medical staffing earlier this year. The task force is, among other issues, considering the proposed development of a consultant provided public hospital service and quantifying the resource and cost implications involved. It is also addressing the reduction in working hours for non-consultant hospital doctors arising from the EU directive on working time and the medical education and training requirements of our hospital medical workforce.
The task force will also address the associated medical staffing needs of the Irish hospital system and consider the medical education and training requirements arising from any changes to the current model of delivering services. 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 was to analyse the 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 final report of the steering group was published in September of this year. The ultimate aim is to have the right number of nurses and midwives in the right place at the right time, with the right skills to ensure that the patient receives the highest standard of care when needed. The report recommends the best possible approach to workforce planning for nursing and midwifery and how this may be kept under review. It should be noted that there has also been a substantial increase in training places in nursing in recent years. In the last five years the number of pre-registration education places for nursing has increased by 69% from 968 in 1998 to 1,640 in 2002.
In relation to other staff, the introduction of integrated workforce planning on a national basis in the health service is a priority under the health strategy. Under action 100 of the strategy my Department will lead the development of an integrated system of workforce planning. We will work closely with the health services skills group established under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness to help identify ways of meeting the workforce requirements of the health system. Integrated workforce planning will build on existing initiatives and available data regarding workforce needs and is aimed at anticipating the number and type of staff required to provide a quality health service.
It is intended that the process will align workforce planning with strategic objectives and the service planning process undertaken in health boards, promote the use of skill mix, facilitating those in support roles to upgrade their skills and enabling specialists to focus on core functions and involve integration with education, training and professional bodies in order to ensure that numbers of training places match the demand for skills within the health sector.
