When the effects of this pandemic began, the health service urgently needed healthcare professionals in roles dedicated to controlling this virus. At this time, it was necessary to redeploy existing staff to areas most urgently affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as testing and contact tracing.
A dedicated testing and tracing workforce is currently being recruited to allow for redeployed staff to return to their original posts. Significant progress is being made to recruit swabbing staff with 3,451 applications received and 503 appointed to date with an anticipated maximum of a further 130 by year end. Onboarding will continue each week until we have a dedicated workforce of 1,000 in swabbing.
With regards to candidates who applied for the ‘Be on Call for Ireland’ initiative, any candidate who remained subscribed to this initiative was notified by email of the Community Swabber recruitment campaign, and individuals could make a decision to apply for it, in line with eligibility criteria for Community Swabber. Candidates appointed from this recruitment initiative are now working in COVID-19 testing centres throughout the country.
At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a need to redeploy staff from across the public and civil sector to areas with urgent service demands. These workers were redeployed to roles in which they had the skillset required.
The work of Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech & Language Therapists and other health and social professionals is essential. Indeed, I wish to take this opportunity to thank all those who work across these different disciplines for their invaluable contribution to the provision of both Covid and non-Covid care during this most difficult year.
The fact is that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented interruption to normal healthcare activity in primary care, and this has impacted on waiting lists which is a concern shared by Deputies on all sides of the House. I am pleased to report that monthly activity across primary care therapy services is now far ahead of what it was in April as therapists and other professionals return to their core roles and service innovations such as digital or telehealth technologies help boost capacity.
