Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

On Vote 17 on the PAS, additional resources obviously are going into the area. In relation to the appointment of medical professionals, there is a serious issue in respect of the recruitment of medical professionals, including for consultant and other posts. Has the Minister engaged with the PAS on the process, the length of time it takes and the delays? I have engaged with local hospital managers and senior management staff within the hospitals and my colleague, Deputy Cullinane, has visited most of the hospitals across the State in the past two weeks. From my engagement and the information relayed to me by Deputy Cullinane, I have learned that the current recruitment process is not fit for purpose, particularly for regional and rural hospitals. For example, when recruiting a consultant for a post in Letterkenny, the PAS could offer the position to a person who is located in Dublin and has no intention of relocating to Letterkenny. The PAS has to go through the process of sending the offer, it being considered and rejected, then must look at the list of candidates again and offer the post to another candidate, and so on. The PAS might get to the fourth candidate on the list, who is somebody from the region who has an interest in the region. It is not just about that person moving to the region and taking up a position; it is also possibly about a partner, a husband or wife, who would need to relocate his or her job, and so on.

There are no regional panels here. If there were regional panels in relation to the suitability for appointments, it could fast-track the process, instead of the PAS going through a process that is not fit for purpose and offering positions to professionals who have no intention of taking them up in the first place. I ask the Minister to comment on that and on the need for a localised campaign. The centralisation of recruitment in the health service is important in terms of costs and quality. Indeed, in the review that has been done on the PAS, concerns have been raised and recommendations made in terms of ensuring that it recruits the proper staff. However, we can see the benefits where hospitals have been able to engage in their own localised recruitment process. I think we can all accept that there is an emergency in terms of staffing of our hospitals, not least now with Covid-19. Surely, this needs to be looked at in a way that is about more than just giving resources to PAS, but actually looking at how we are recruiting, why there are no localised panels and allowing our hospitals, within certain parameters, to organise localised recruitment initiatives. My understanding from the regions is that the ones that are bearing most fruits are those introduced to recruit nurses, in particular, as well as other professionals at higher levels.