Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies O'Dowd, Breathnach, Adams and Munster for raising this issue and for allowing me to address the House on the matter. In direct response to Deputy Munster's question, the first thing I am going to do is stop playing party politics with the health service, and that is why I received Cabinet approval today to move ahead with the motion - which I understand Deputy Munster's own party and indeed every party in this House feels very strongly about - to set up a cross-party committee to meet within six months to look at a single vision for a single tier public health service and how we are going to fund that. I look forward to constructive ideas on that measure.

I regret that a decision was made to undertake industrial action in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda following the breakdown of talks at the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, last Friday on resolution of the staffing difficulties at the hospital. I believe that the interests of patients are always best served through negotiation and by avoiding industrial action. Industrial action, even if it is limited to non-core duties, is not in the best interests of patient care and cannot resolve the staffing issues. Nonetheless, I take the point made by Deputy Munster about caring professionalism and I am sure it is not a decision any nurse takes lightly. I am pleased, therefore, that the INMO and the HSE have accepted an invitation from the WRC to attend a meeting tomorrow to discuss the issues. I welcome this progress and this recommencement of talks. I am satisfied that the issues raised by the INMO can be best addressed through engagement at the WRC.

Meanwhile, the hospital is implementing a contingency plan to minimise, in so far as is possible, the impact of the industrial action on patient care. The emergency departments will remain open over the course of the industrial action in an effort to continue to meet patients’ emergency medical needs. Unfortunately, the contingency plan included cancelling all planned, non-urgent elective procedures today other than cancer related care. Patients whose appointments are affected were contacted directly by the hospital and a new date will be re-scheduled as soon as possible.

I want to correct the impression that there is a recruitment embargo at present. This is not the case and there is no blanket embargo on recruitment. While there has to be compliance with national pay structures and management of employment numbers within budget in the HSE, there is scope for hospitals to continue to recruit, particularly across key departments such as intensive care units, theatre and emergency departments.

Our Lady of Lourdes recognises the need for ongoing recruitment drives due to the movement of staff across the HSE and to other health care services in Ireland and abroad. To date, 34 nurses and midwives have been recruited to the hospital this year and 21 staff nurses are in the process of being recruited. At present there are two campaigns of particular relevance: a Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland hospital group competition and an initiative to offer all nursing graduates of 2016 the opportunity for permanent nursing posts.

The HSE has continually increased staffing levels since the beginning of 2015. By the end of March 2016 overall health service employee numbers had increased by 5,856 whole-time equivalents, the vast majority in front-line positions. During that 15-month period from January 2015, the numbers employed in acute hospitals increased by 3,500 whole-time equivalents, with nursing numbers up by more than 1,700 whole-time equivalents during the same timeframe.

I assure Deputies that the Government is fully aware of the difficulties and challenges. I am due to meet the INMO tomorrow to discuss nursing issues in general and I look forward to engaging constructively with it and to continuing the very constructive role it plays in co-chairing the emergency department task force as we all work together as stakeholders to try to address the issues facing our emergency departments and hospital staff, including nurses and midwives, in delivering care.

It is my intention to continue to grow the health budget as the economy improves and to obtain the resources necessary to improve working conditions for front-line staff to enable us to deliver the level of service that we all want to provide to our patients. I wish to put the health service employee numbers on the record in this House. While it does not always fit the political narrative, the numbers are the numbers. I absolutely accept there is still some way to go to get back to the numbers of front-line staff working in our hospitals before the recession but it is important to note that the numbers have continued to increase since December 2013. At that time, there were 47,934 people working in the acute sector. In December 2014, that figure had increased to 49,742. By December 2015, it had increased to 52,539. In March 2016, that number stood at 53,253. With regard to nurses, including midwives, at the end of 2014 there were 34,211, which rose to 35,036 in March 2015 and to 35,918 in March 2016. Since December 2014, there has been an increase of 1,707 nurses, which is a 5% increase. Since March 2015, there has been an increase of 825, which is a 2.5% increase. There is significantly more to do but it is simply not correct to put the narrative out there that nursing numbers and front-line staff are declining when in fact the opposite is true. Deputy O'Dowd's invitation to visit Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital is absolutely something I would like to take up and I look forward to visiting shortly.

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