Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 November 2014
149. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Health to outline the actions being taken by his Department in conjunction with the Health Service Executive to ensure community mental health teams and inpatient psychiatric services are fully staffed, particularly in the Dublin north-east region, where there have been crises in recent months with the lack of inpatient capacity. [42728/14]
View answerThis Government has prioritised the reform of our mental health services in line with A Vision for Change and is committed in particular to the delivery of more and better quality care in the community. Additional funding totalling €90 million and some 1,100 new posts have been provided as part of the 2012, 2013 and 2014 Budgets, with a further €35 million to be provided next year.
Subject to approval by senior managers, arrangements are in place in the HSE to allow the recruitment of staff where it has been established that there is an urgent service requirement. In addition, the HSE continues to fill a significant number of development posts in line with service priorities identified by Government.
To date, the appointment of new staff to Community Mental Health Teams has been slower than we would have liked and was due to a number of factors, including budgetary pressures within the HSE and the need to establish the type and number of posts required by each Community Mental Health Team. In addition, there were a number of posts for which there were difficulties in identifying suitable candidates due to factors including availability of qualified candidates and geographic location. To help address these issues, the HSE Service Plan 2014 committed to the streamlining of the recruitment process to allow for more local control and specialisation in respect of future appointments. In addition a comprehensive workforce analysis was carried out, together with priorities identified by Area Mental Health Management Teams, to inform decisions as to how best to target the 2014 investment posts.
In relation to the particular staffing issue in Dublin North East, as this is a service issue this question has been referred to the HSE for direct reply to the Deputy. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and they will follow up the matter with the Executive.
