Ms Anne Marie Hoey:

It is fair to say that in recent months, we have grown our workforce through a number of means in response to Covid, including direct recruitment, redeployment, increasing the numbers of staff on part-time hours, rehiring retirees with specific skills and so on. We have also targeted recruitment through specific groups. Student nurses have been employed as healthcare assistants. Medical laboratory scientists have been employed in their sphere, as have radiography graduates.

We have seen an increase in employment over the past number of months. As of the end of June, employment had increased by just over 4,500 staff members. We are continuing various initiatives to address our recruitment requirements as we plan for winter and the Covid environment.