Health staffing shortages
Deputy Grealish raised delays across health services caused by shortages of nurses, doctors and administrative staff. The Taoiseach acknowledged recruitment and retention as a major global problem and said funding is up, but staffing capacity remains a constraint.
I am contacted on a regular basis by individuals in my constituency regarding difficulties in accessing health services. These difficulties exist across a wide range of services, including home help, services for children with disabilities, respite services, nursing staff and even down to a shortage of administration staff to type letters, which results in delayed or inaccurate treatment of patients with neurological diseases. On making further inquiries with relevant authorities, I am informed these delays are a result of staff shortages. The problem is coupled with nurses and doctors leaving the health service and emigrating for better contracts and working conditions abroad. It is clear there is a serious problem across community care and acute health services, and these staff shortages are adding to chronic waiting lists. We also have a problem with dentists leaving the medical card scheme and a possible shortage of GPs in the coming years. What is the Government doing to address the chronic issues of staff recruitment and retention across our health services? When are we likely to see an improvement?
Comment on this
The recruitment and retention of healthcare workers is a real problem. We now have a huge budget for our health service. It was €14 billion when I was the Minister for Health and is €22 billion now. There is no lack of money or political will when it comes to improving our health services but there are other restraints, one of which is the ability to train, recruit and retain an adequate number of healthcare staff. This is by no means unique to Ireland; it is an international phenomenon. It is a global labour market. Why are the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US and the United Arab Emirates taking in healthcare workers from around the world? It is because they are short too and the people they train also go abroad. We all face the same problem. It is a tough battle but one we are winning. I say that because there are nearly 20,000 more staff in our health service than there were two and a half years ago, including nearly 6,000 more nurses and midwives and nearly 2,000 more doctors and dentists.