Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming in again. We sat for 11 months to discuss reforming the health service in general, resulting in the Sláintecare report. Issues such as this have been raised in that report. It is eight months since the report's publication and it does not look as if it will be accepted as an implementation blueprint for reforming our health service. Those are the indications we are getting from Government.

In the absence of a broad plan such as that, what do the witnesses see as the first step in reforming our health service? We are speaking about recruitment and retention here. Recruitment and retention of GPs is very important for the mental health services because generally we are the first port of call. We will deal with most of those patients ourselves or refer them to a community psychiatric team, which should consist of a psychologist, a social worker, maybe cognitive behaviour therapy and a community psychiatric nurse, all the components make up a community team and many do not exist. The posts are not filled. Those places are vacant. We spoke with the Psychiatric Nurses Association earlier and went through various reasons why people are not staying in the service. They reckoned salary was the main problem. I would think career progression, job satisfaction, being supported in their job and the morale of staff are problems. They should be valued members of staff yet there does not seem to be a lot of support for them. What do the witnesses feel is needed in respect of recruitment and retention of GPs, the allied services and consultants and non-consultant hospital doctors in psychiatric services?