Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Specifically with regard to the surgical hubs, we are sanctioning the staff now. We are finalising the complement. We do not need the surgeons, because surgeons will come from their existing work and use the facilities, but we do need administrative support. We obviously need theatre nurses, who are rare as hens' teeth in Ireland and across the world. We are sanctioning the recruitment of those now. The idea is that as they are hired, hopefully through this year and next year, they can work within the main hospitals and when the surgical hubs go live they will be transferred to provide those services.

Recruitment is broadly going well. There are two different lenses on this. There are some parts of the country, some hospitals and some specialties where it is really tough to recruit and we have significant shortages. Theatre nurses are one speciality where it is very difficult to recruit, ICU teams are another, as well as paediatrics or emergency department nursing. There are various specialties. There are various parts of the country where hospitals have found it quite difficult. In Letterkenny, for example, they are finding it very difficult to fill some of the consultant posts that are sanctioned there. It is early days but people are getting quite interested in the new consultant contract. I have heard of one or two examples of doctors coming from the NHS to take up the new contract. The hope is that, particularly for those hospitals that have struggled, the new consultant contract, which is a very attractive contract, will help. It is early days but that is the hope.

At a macro level, recruitment is going really well. We have nearly 20,000 more people working in the HSE than we had when Covid arrived. It is a vast increase in the workforce. This year we are targeting about 6,000. Last year the final figure was about 5,400 and we have funded another 6,000 this year. If the HSE hits that or comes close to it we will basically have had four years in a row of record recruitment into the public health service . It is very encouraging. We are making a lot of changes. We have the new consultant contract. We are investing heavily in safe staffing. We are investing heavily in advanced practice for nursing and midwifery and now for health and social care professionals. I am working with the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to double the number of healthcare college places in the country so we will have a sustainable pipeline into the future. There is a lot of work going on. The Senator will be aware of the NCHD situation, which I think we all agree is totally unacceptable and has been for many years. We now have a good team in place. It has come up with some recommendations which we are now putting in place. The HSE, to its great credit, is making changes to things like emergency tax. We will be looking at regional training rather than posting people all over the country, unless it is to a national centre of excellence. There is a lot of focus on workforce. In fairness to everybody involved, we are expanding our workforce in healthcare at a level that would be the envy of a lot of countries around the world.