James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

The main service areas that have been identified as critical in the context of the grace period retirements include maternity hospitals and critical and intensive care, as well as community nursing services.

It is, therefore, necessary to be as innovative and flexible as possible in order to mitigate the impact on services of reduced budgets and staffing. The mitigation measures which are in place include changes in work practices, staff redeployment, rostering and skill-mix changes, revised business processes, integration of services and streamlining of management structures. I acknowledge the great work and commitment of staff in ensuring a safe service has been maintained and in maintaining the number of people on trolleys throughout March at 17% despite the challenges they faced.

Some limited recruitment of new staff is also taking place to ensure that key specialist services are maintained. However, the priority is to reform how health services are delivered to ensure a more productive and cost effective health system. The need for dynamic and proactive management of the reduced budgets and staff will continue throughout the year. Last week, I announced a new initiative around training of clinical leaders, managers, nursing staff and GPs in management, which will ensure they are given the skill set and tools to do the job we require of them. Many excellent people who previously worked in administration or as clinicians are currently in managerial positions in respect of which they have received no specific training. While they are willing and able to do the job we need to ensure they have the required tools to do it.

The HSE National Service Plan 2012 acknowledges that there will be inevitable and unavoidable reductions in services this year owing to the scale of the financial and staffing challenge facing the health service. I am satisfied that suitable arrangements are in place at national, regional and service specific levels to proactively manage the impact on front line services. Since the end of the grace period there has been daily communication between the national director of integrated services and regional management teams to ensure that any issues or risks identified are addressed. No new issues have arisen and all essential services are being maintained.

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