Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 June 2021
15. Deputy Cathal Berry asked the Minister for Defence the status of the nursing review in the Defence Forces; when it commenced; when it is likely to conclude; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34707/21]
Amharc ar fhreagraI wish to focus this question on the Army Nursing Service, specifically the review that I understand may have been ongoing for a short while. Will the Minister indicate when the review commenced and is likely to finish, and will he make a statement on the matter?
To be fair to him, the Deputy always asks searching questions. For obvious reasons, this is a sector that he understands well.
The civil-military joint standing committee on medical service delivery is tasked with advancing the development of a sustainable, integrated medical service to meet the needs of the Defence Forces. As part of its work, it has committed to reviewing each key medical capability separately. The objective of each review is to evaluate and make recommendations regarding the most appropriate means of delivering each service to the Defence Forces. These reviews are conducted on an ongoing basis as the workload of the committee allows.
On this basis, a review of the Army Nursing Service was commenced in March 2020. A subgroup of the main committee has been established and is currently progressing its work with a view to the review being finalised by the end of 2021. It should be noted that the work of the joint standing committee was impacted by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The objective of the review is to document and evaluate the current and historical service provided by the Army Nursing Service, examine the recommendations of previous reviews, provide an overview of relevant legislation governing the Army Nursing Service, nursing in Ireland and, where possible, international best practice in military nursing, consider the potential future role of the Army Nursing Service and nurses in the context of the operational capability of the Medical Corps and Defence Forces, and to present options regarding the most appropriate means of delivering nursing services to the Defence Forces, including a consideration of both internal and outsourced service provision.
The Army Nursing Service forms part of a wide range of medical services that are provided to members of the Permanent Defence Force. These include an annual medical examination, sick parades, attendance at GP surgeries outside of sick parade and out-of-hours GP services, prescription services, laboratory services, physiotherapy, radiology, mental health services provided by an in-house psychiatrist and two in-house psychologists, inpatient and outpatient public hospital charges and routine dental treatment.
This is an important service. In fact, it is an essential service that is provided to our Permanent Defence Force. The review should conclude by the end of the year.
Additional information not given on the floor of the House
Commissioned officers and members of the Army Nursing Service can avail of private consultant appointments and diagnostic tests as well as private or semi-private hospital treatment dependent on rank, including private maternity care for female officers. Of course, in the event of emergency situations arising in the course of Defence Forces activities, all personnel regardless of rank receive the appropriate medical care expeditiously. Furthermore, the programme for Government contains a commitment to extend this range of benefits to the enlisted ranks in the Defence Forces and a working group has been established to make proposals on this matter. Its work is ongoing.
The ongoing reviews of the range of medical services provided to the Defence Forces are an important tool in ensuring the provision of quality care to our personnel. I assure the Deputy that this is a priority for my Department and me.
I thank the Minister for that useful and helpful response.
What can I say about the Army Nursing Service? It is a fantastic component of the Defence Forces, but I assume the Minister agrees that it is in decline. In its heyday a number of decades ago, there were approximately 100 nurses. Now, there are only three or four. That is a major pity because, over the past 15 months during the pandemic, nurses would have been useful both within the Defence Forces and in dealing with the public, including from a nursing homeless perspective.
The majority of the nurses employed by the Defence Forces are agency nurses, which are expensive. In one barracks, an agency nurse has been re-employed on a 24-hour basis every day since 2012, which is a suboptimal situation from her perspective as well as the organisation's perspective.
I would be grateful if the Minister could expedite the nursing review. Let us get decisions made and nurses back into the Defence Forces where they belong.
I will follow the progress of this review closely. The Army Nursing Service is essential to our Defence Forces and needs to be available to all serving personnel. We have made a commitment in the programme for Government that the medical facilities available to officers in the Defence Forces should be available to all serving personnel. That commitment will take some time to implement, but I am determined to do that.
I am happy to make the commitment that the review will conclude before the end of the year. We will see if we can complete it at an earlier point. I take on board what the Deputy has said.
The Minister will agree that the nursing component of the Defence Forces is very important, given its scope of practice and the particular skill set and mindset that nurses bring to proceedings, particularly from an overseas point of view. It would be unusual among the EU 27 for a military not to have an army nursing service. Thankfully, we have not had a casualty overseas in 16 or 17 years, but we are on borrowed time. If we recruit nurses, we should be able to deploy them overseas like any normal military does. That is important, as we must de-risk our overseas operations. We must prevent our next casualty from becoming our next fatality. Having a functioning, well-resourced and well-staffed Army Nursing Service is crucial in that regard.
I assure the House that, in terms of our overseas deployments, we always ensure that there are appropriate medical supports, medical facilities and nursing staff available to our serving personnel. This normally means that we embed our serving personnel with others. In Mali, we are embedded with the Germans. When I visited the EU training mission, it had a German medical facility that was responsible for looking after the medical requirements of the Irish serving personnel. That said, medical expertise and medical staff, including nursing staff, are an important component of a rounded and functioning defence forces. I hope that is what we can deliver following the review.
