Written Answers. - Hospital Staff.
Bernard J. Durkan
Ceist:
202
Mr. Durkan
asked the
Minister for Health and Children
the extent to which the number of speech therapists, social workers and other health services staff are adequate to meet requirements; the extent to which it is intended to address these issues in each of the health board areas in the foreseeable future; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[27782/03]
Staffing requirements in the areas highlighted by the Deputy should be viewed in the context of the very substantial increases in employment levels achieved in these areas over recent years. In this context, comparing employment levels at the end of June 2003 to those at the end of 1999, there were nearly 25% – 6,711 – more nurses, 23% – 1,239 – more medical/dental personnel and 85% – 5,817 – more health and social care professionals employed in the health services in wholetime equivalent, WTE, terms.
Developments such as pay increases, improvements in career structure and enhanced opportunities for professional and career development have all supported increased staffing levels for key health and social care professions. The implementation of the pay recommendations of the public service benchmarking body – subject to the successful completion of the performance verification process – will make a further important contribution to recruitment and improved retention. The ongoing implementation of the action plan for people management – a key action under the health strategy – has a crucial role in improving retention and reducing turnover of skilled professional staff.
Specific human resource initiatives have contributed significantly to meeting the human resource requirements of the health services, including those highlighted by the Deputy.
As far as the therapy professions are concerned, the report, Current and Future Demand Conditions in the Labour Market for Certain Professional Therapists, commissioned by my Department from Dr. Peter Bacon and Associates, concluded that a major expansion was essential in the numbers of therapists and this required a very substantial increase in therapy training places in order to meet the long-term requirements of the health services.
Significant progress has been achieved in boosting the number of therapy training places in line with the recommendations of that report. In May 2002, I announced, in conjunction with the Minister for Education and Science, an additional 175 therapy training places in physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy to achieve the recommended increase in the number of therapists over the next decade recommended in the report. The first intake into these additional training places, which include 75 speech and language therapy places, in UL, UCC and NUIG commenced this year.
In addition to the provision of substantial numbers of additional training places, the Deputy may wish to note that the numbers of speech and language therapy professionals employed in the health services since the end of 1999 have increased by almost 35% to 465 at the end of June 2003. Given this increase it is clear that good progress has been made in responding to the vacancy level identified in the Bacon report.
A number of steps have been taken to improve recruitment and retention of social workers. The provision of additional training places is a central element of the strategy to meet the employment needs of the health services in social work. A further 59 social work training places were provided in 2002, bringing the total number of training places to 197, compared to 138 in 2001. This represents an increase of 91 training places (86%) over the level of training provision in 2000.
In addition to the increase in training places, other steps have been taken over recent years to improve the recruitment and retention of social workers in the health service. These include the establishment of the national social work forum to progress a number of issues for the social work profession. Developments include the creation of a new grade of senior social work practitioner and the upgrading of single-handed and certain specialised posts. The forum also initiated a social work workload management study with a view to facilitating the best use of professional social work time. It is planned to commence pilot projects early in 2004 arising from the workload management study.
The effectiveness to date of these initiatives can be seen in the substantial increase of almost 58% in the overall numbers of social workers employed in the health service in WTE terms from the end of 1999 to the end of June 2003.
In July 2002, a comprehensive report on the nursing and midwifery resource, Towards Workforce Planning, was published. The recruitment and retention of adequate numbers of nursing staff has been a priority for the Government for some time and a number of substantial measures have been introduced in recent years most notably an increase of seventy per cent in the number of nursing training places from 968 in 1998 to 1,640 in 2003. In addition, there are now in excess of 800 places available on specialist post-graduate courses, including accident and emergency, coronary care and oncology. A comprehensive package of incentives, including payment of fees and other financial supports, is available to nurses undertaking these courses. The effectiveness of these measures is shown in the large increases in the numbers of nursing staff in the last four years, as previously highlighted.
As far as medical personnel are concerned the recently published report of the National Task Force on Medical Staffing details the number of consultants and non-consultant hospital doctors that will be required in the coming years to provide a high quality, consultant-provided service.
The Deputy may wish to note that responsibility for human resource planning rests with the chief executive officer of each board. Each chief executive officer, in managing the workforce in his/her region, is responsible for determining the appropriate staffing mix and the precise grades of staff to be employed in line with service plan priorities, subject to overall employment levels remaining within the approved regional employment ceiling.
Question No. 203 answered with Question No. 133.
