Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 December 2020
654. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Health the status of transposing the Council Directive 2013/59/EURATOM into Irish law which would make provisions to include physiotherapists on the list of health professionals named as referrers entitled to refer persons for medical radiological and ionising radiation procedures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41551/20]
View answerThe European Union (Basic Safety Standards for Protection Against Dangers Arising from Medical Exposure to Ionising Radiation) Regulations 2018 (S.I. 256 of 2018) transposed the Basic Safety Standards Directive (BSSD), the purpose of which is to protect the public, patients, workers and others from all forms of ionising radiation.
The regulations designate those who may refer for radiological tests, those who may carry them out and other functions; nurses, doctors, dentists and radiographers are designated as appropriate. Physiotherapists are not designated in the regulations. Physiotherapists were not designated as referrers under the previous regulations.
It should be noted that not all statutorily regulated professions are designated for the purposes of the BSSD.
In November 2017, my colleague Minister Harris launched Working Together for Health: A National Strategic Framework for Health and Social Care Workforce Planning. Underpinned by a core set of principles, the framework is intended to support the recruitment and retention of the right mix of health workers across the health system to meet planned and projected service need.
The Programme for Government Our Shared Future commits to establishing a Workforce Planning Expert Unit to work with the education sectors, regulators, and professional bodies to improve the availability of health professionals and reform their training to support integrated care across the entire health service.
A Strategic Workforce Planning Unit has been established within my Department to achieve this objective. Effective medium and long-term health workforce planning will be vital to ensure that the introduction of new models of healthcare are planned and managed effectively to ensure that we have the health professionals required to meet future healthcare need.
