Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Government is committed to reforming our model of delivering health care so that we can reduce the cost of achieving the best health outcomes for our citizens. The implementation of the primary care strategy continues to be a priority for the Government. The objective is to develop services in the community that will give people direct access to integrated multidisciplinary teams of general practitioners, GPs, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and others.

An allocation of €20 million was set aside in the HSE's 2012 national service plan for approximately 250 primary care posts. Due to financial constraints, however, it was not possible to fill these posts last year. This allocation of €20 million is ring-fenced in the 2013 national service plan to enable recruitment of posts to strengthen primary care services. The posts will be filled using the resource allocation model, based on deprivation and need, which was developed by the HSE's National Primary Care Office and health intelligence unit. Using this model, the HSE completed a detailed analysis of the numbers and distribution of public health nurses, registered general nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and speech and language therapists. The analysis revealed considerable variation across the 17 integrated service areas, ISAs, in ratios of health care professionals to population and to population numbers in areas of high deprivation.

Based on this analysis, it proposed that, in addition to public health nurse and registered general nurse posts, the following therapy posts will be recruited to primary care teams across the four HSE regions as follows: Dublin mid-Leinster is to get 12 occupational therapists, 24 physios and 22 speech and language therapists; Dublin north east is to get nine occupational therapists, 14 physios and 13 speech and language therapists; the south is to get 17 occupational therapists, six physios and four speech and language therapists; and the west is to get 13 occupational therapists, two physios and seven speech and language therapists. It is my firm intention, along with that of the Minister for Health, to have these posts and the public health and registered general nursing posts filled as soon as possible in 2013.

In relation to mental health, a special allocation of €35 million was provided in budget 2012 to be used primarily to further strengthen community mental health teams in both adult and children’s mental health services.

A total of 414 posts, to include clinical psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists and speech and language therapists, were approved to implement the €35 million package of special measures. As at end of February, 307 posts have been filled, by which I mean an employment contract has issued and is signed with a start date agreed, and the remainder are at various stages of selection.

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Budgetary pressures within the HSE delayed the full utilisation of this funding, but this sum is now available to mental health services along with an additional €35 million allocated in budget 2013 for the continued development of mental health services. The HSE National Service Plan 2013 commits to a number of objectives including the further development of forensics and community mental health teams for adults, children, older persons and mental health intellectual disability and to the recruitment of 477 additional staff to implement these measures.

In order to ensure that the additional resources will be used to best effect, discussions are ongoing within the HSE, and in consultation with the Department of Health, to finalise the allocation of these resources. Each HSE region is being asked to submit a business case against each of the identified objectives detailing how the funding is to be spent and the type and number of whole-time equivalents, WTEs, to be recruited. It is expected that this process will be concluded in the very near future.

My colleague, the Minister for Health, has been assured by the HSE that the recruitment process for the new mental health posts being funded in 2013 and any outstanding posts from the 414 approved in 2012 is being given priority within the HSE.

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