Health | Adequacy of nursing staff in public hospitals

To ask the Minister for Health the extent to which nursing staff throughout the public hospital staff is adequate or otherwise to meet the requirements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. 

REPLY

Dear Deputy Durkan, 

The Health Service Executive has been requested to reply directly to you in the context of the above Parliamentary Question, which you submitted to the Minister for Health for response. 

The Framework for Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill Mix in General and Specialist Medical and Surgical Care Settings in Adult Hospitals, continues to be rolled out. Currently implementation of this phase of the Framework has commenced in all Model 4 hospital sites. It is envisaged that implementation of this phase of the Framework will commence in Model 3 and 2 hospital sites in 2023 subject to the provision of adequate funding in NSP 2023. 

Funding has been provided in HSE Winter Plan 2022/2023 to support the implementation and rollout Phase II of the Safer Staffing Framework across all adult Emergency Departments. The Framework for Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill Mix in Adult Emergency Care settings is currently being commenced across all Emergency Departments. 

The HSE continues to actively recruit at local, national and international level to maintain and strengthen its workforce in nursing and other disciplines. It does so using available funding, to ensure delivery of services in line with the National Service Plan. 

Employment levels as at September 2022 show that there were 42,657 WTE directly employed in the Nursing & Midwifery Staff Category, an increase of 1,081 WTE year to date. 

I trust this is of assistance to you.