Colm Burke
Question:774. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Health the additional funding that has been provided for the recruitment of primary care team staff in 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5003/22]
View answerTuesday, 1 February 2022
Questions (774)
Written answers
In Budget 2022, the Minister secured annual investment of €195m to enable the continued delivery of the Enhanced Community Care Programme. This investment is supporting a programmatic and integrated approach to the development of the primary and community care sector that, among other initiatives, includes the development of primary care teams within 96 new Community Healthcare Networks (CHNs). These networks will be central to the development of improved primary care services, and each will consist of between 4-6 primary care teams serving a local population of around 50,000.
The expansion of primary care capacity is key to delivering the ECC programme, with approximately 3,500 additional staff to be recruited overall. Of these, it is expected that around 1,900 will be recruited to Primary Care Teams within the CHNs while the remainder will be employed in new Community Specialist Teams, Community Intervention Teams or other initiatives being advanced under the ECC programme.
There is flexibility within the overall ECC budget given the scale of the reform programme and associated recruitment, but it is estimated that €100-€110m of the ECC allocation in 2022 will support recruitment of primary care team staff.