Vol. 517 No. 4
105 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Health and Children if he has satisfied himself as to the adequacy of staff to meet the requirements in hospitals; the plans, if any, to augment the personnel available in line with anticipated requirements; if he will address the issue of staff shortages; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9942/00]
This Government is providing unprecedented resources for the development of the health services. A total of £4 billion will be spent this year, just two years after the total net expenditure in the sector passed the £3 billion for the first time. Funding for specific service developments in the acute hospital sector this year stands at over four times the level provided in the final year of the last Government's term of office. This is facilitating a number of substantial initiatives with a view to ensuring that the acute hospital services are reformed, re-organised and properly geared to meet the need of our population. They include the recently launched cardio-vascular health strategy including developments in cardiac surgery; the continuing implementation of the national cancer strategy which is improving the availability of cancer treatment services throughout the country; the development of renal services which will involve an investment of £20 million over the next three years; the establishment of a medical manpower forum to review the key aspects of medical staffing in public hospitals and a range of other initiatives in such areas of acute hospital governance and management developments, clinicians in management, hospital accreditation, laboratory accreditation and health technology assessment.
The availability of skilled professionals to lead these developments is essential.
I am committed to addressing any staff shortages in the health area. A number of initiatives are continuing in this regard. The medical staffing of hospitals is currently being addressed by the Medical Manpower Forum. With particular regard to non-consultant hospital doctors the forum is seeking to redress the imbalance between career posts and training posts, the need to improve postgraduate medical training to keep more Irish medical graduates in the country, and the need to look at the position of women in medicine in Ireland with a view to redressing the number who leave medicine. The medical manpower forum is due to publish its first report shortly.
In relation to other grades, the expert group report on allied health professions is due to report within a number of weeks and it will address manpower planning issues for the ten allied health professionals with which it is dealing. With regard to social workers, the National Social Work Qualifications Board has undertaken a manpower planning study of social workers. A new grade of student medical laboratory technician has been created to produce additional qualified technicians. Twenty additional student places have also been funded in the existing courses. A review of psychology services is under way at present, with manpower planning as one of the issues on the agenda. Talks are ongoing with the heads of the schools of psychology regarding increasing the number of places for graduates. Terms of reference for a manpower planning study for occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and physiotherapists are being finalised by my Department at present.
In relation to nursing, the most comprehensive survey on nursing vacancies was carried out by the Health Service Employers Agency and related to the position at 30 September 1999. The survey found that there were 1,180.46 vacancies in gross terms but, when adjustments are made for the utilisation of agency nurses and overtime working, the net figure is 428.16 .
The results confirmed again that there is not a nationwide problem regarding the availability of nurses and that difficulties largely relate to the greater Dublin area. Indications are that the level of applicants for nursing posts outside the Dublin area far exceeds the number of positions available.
