Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 January 2024
1475. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Health the workplace planning occurring within the Government to ensure that there are enough persons in each profession within the HSE each year; and the details of the number of places that have been provided in third level institutions in Ireland in each of the past ten years to supply each medical professional category in Ireland. [56405/23]
View answerHealth and Social Care workforce planning and ensuring an appropriate pipeline of suitably qualified healthcare professionals in Ireland is a top priority for the Government.
• Over the period 2011 to 2021 first year Medicine Enrolments grew from 1,129 to 1,403 – an increase of 24%. Source: Spending Review 2022: An Analysis of Medical Workforce Supply.
• Over the period 2011 to 2021 first-year Nursing and Midwifery places in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) grew from 1,570 to 2,032 – an increase of almost 30%. Source: Spending Review 2022 A System Dynamics Model of Nursing and Midwifery Workforce Supply.
• Over the period 2014-2021 first year student enrolments in Health and Welfare programmes grew from 6,000 to 6,855 an increase of 14%. Source: hea.ie/statistics
My department is committed to ensuring that there is an appropriate supply of healthcare professionals to meet demand for health services. As part of this commitment, the department is heavily invested in the ongoing education of healthcare staff to support recruitment and retention. Data from Health in Ireland Key Trends 2022 (DOH 2022) shows students graduating as both undergraduates and postgraduates in the fields of medicine, pharmacy and nursing and midwifery were seen to increase consistently over the period of 2014 and 2020. The total graduating students in 2014 stood at 4,841 which then increased by nearly 30% to 6,264 in 2020. Of the 6,264 graduates in 2020, 31.1% were from the field of medicine, 59.7% came from the field of nursing and midwifery, while the remaining students graduated from the pharmaceutical field.
Department of Health officials engage on an ongoing basis with colleagues in the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and other relevant stakeholders to ensure that we train enough graduates with the skills necessary to support the delivery of health and social care services and to develop a strategic approach to workforce planning for the health sector.
In July 2022, Government signed off on an agreement with the Irish Medical Schools to increase the number of student places available annually for Irish/EU Students in Irish Medical Schools by 200 over the five years. This has seen an additional 60 EU students in September 2022, climbing to 120 in September 2023 and up to 200 by 2026.
An additional 662 student places have been provided in the Higher Education Sector on health-related courses in the academic year 2023/24. This includes approximately 200 student places across Nursing and Midwifery and all Allied Health Professionals in Northern Ireland.
Ireland is currently developing a Health and Social Care Workforce Planning Projection Model to address long-term workforce planning needs of health sector. The Key outcome of this project is that we will have necessary tools, processes, and technical capacity to produce rolling health and social care workforce planning action plans and implement targeted policy measures for health and social care workforce reform. The project will provide Health and Social Care workforce demand and supply projections spanning short, medium and long-term time horizons.
