Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 November 2021
601. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Health his plans to assist public and private healthcare providers to address the serious staff shortages that are impacting on care standards in hospitals, nursing homes and in homecare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55870/21]
View answerThe COVID-19 pandemic brought a range of serious challenges to our health service and health service workforce. To continue to meet the ongoing demands caused by the pandemic, and to provide the necessary resources for the longer-term health care requirements of our population, the health sector workforce is expanding. In 2021 year-to-date, the workforce has increased by 3.5% from last year, with an additional 4,462 WTE recruited. The health sector now has a total of 130,636 WTE as of September 2021. The year-to-date WTE growth in 2021 is the second largest increase since the foundation of the HSE, with the increases in 2020 being the largest.
Budgets 2021 and 2022 have provided significant amounts of funding for a large-scale permanent expansion of the health service workforce. From the current position, of 130,636 WTE funding has been provided to increase the workforce by approximately 10,855 WTE, equating to an increase of 8%.
The Programme for Government (2020) commits to the introduction of “a statutory scheme to support people to live in their own homes, which will provide equitable access to high-quality, regulated home care.” The Department is in the process of developing a statutory scheme for the financing and regulation of home-support. The new scheme will provide equitable and transparent access to high-quality services based on a person’s assessed care-needs.
In parallel with this, the Department has committed to establishing a Cross Departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group. The role of the group will be to facilitate the views of stakeholders and examine the evidence regarding the skills and labour market shortage, in home support and nursing homes. Potential areas to be considered include recruitment, retention, skills development, and sustainable employment of home care workers into the future.
