Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank People Before Profit-Solidarity for bringing forward the motion. It is very timely and important. It deals with a group of people who are absolutely critical to our health service. They work behind the scenes in a very quiet way. In many ways they have been too quiet in recent years. They have now reached breaking point.

It is important to note at the start that since the inclusion of the motion on the Dáil schedule, strike action for today was averted with the intervention of the Labour Court. That is a very positive development. However, it should never have come to this. Medical scientists have been extremely patient and have exhausted all avenues to resolve this dispute before resorting to industrial action.

This is a failure of the Government in my view.

I met a substantial number of medical scientists at Beaumont hospital yesterday. I got a sense of their utter frustration and annoyance with the way they have been treated. They are highly qualified people who want to work in the public health system but because of the disrespect that has been shown by the Government over many years, they are finding it increasingly difficult to do that. It is becoming a much more difficult job owing to serious recruitment problems. There is also a very deep sense of disrespect on the part of medical scientists. We should not be treating any of our healthcare workers like that.

It has been over two decades since an expert group report recommended pay parity for medical scientists with their colleagues in biochemistry and yet their pay remains approximately 8% less. It is difficult to fathom how successive governments have failed to implement this recommendation from 20 years ago when the current Taoiseach was Minister for Health and Children. That recommendation was accepted by the Department of Health and the HSE. It is even more difficult to fathom how a procedural error in 2002 seems to be the cause of this long-standing dispute.

Once again, it would appear that an unnecessary level of bureaucracy was the stumbling block. We have had more than 20 years to correct this situation, but successive Ministers have sat on their hands and allowed this issue to reach a crisis point. This strike action has not only brought this dispute to public attention but it has also shown us the importance of medical scientists. They are essential front-line workers and without them the delicate fabric of our health service would fall apart. Why is that? It is because the health service operates on the basis that if you produce it, they will test it. That is a critical role that is played and a key cog in the operation of the public health service.

Routine tests such as those for Covid and those of blood and urine samples, to name but a few, cannot be processed without them, in effect causing havoc in public hospitals, emergency departments and GP surgeries throughout the country. As a result of one day's strike action, approximately 14,000 procedures were cancelled in hospitals last week. Of course, much more work in the health service was delayed, deferred or could not happen as a result of the strike action. While emergency cover was offered, this only amounted to out-of-hours or Christmas Day levels of service. This was nowhere near the level needed to keep routine hospital and GP services even ticking over, never mind tackling our unacceptably long waiting lists.

Last week the HSE chief executive, Paul Reid, told the Joint Committee on Health that the plans to cut these waiting lists by one fifth this year were under challenge. One of the reasons highlighted was legacy issues and this pay dispute is undoubtedly one of those legacy issues. In fact, it is a microcosm of one of the root problems in our health service - the difficulties with recruitment and retention.

People are fleeing the public health service, or refusing to enter it, in the pursuit of better pay, improved working conditions and better work-life balance. This is a common thread across healthcare professions from nurses to consultants to medical scientists and so many others. Unless we address these concerns which have reached a tipping point because of Covid, we will continue to face staff shortages and even industrial action. We know that 20% of medical scientists' posts are unfilled in public hospitals. For example, ten medical scientists left last year and they have still not been replaced. Who must shoulder that burden? It is the remaining medical scientists as is so often the case but there are difficulties with recruitment. It is already a pressurised job but where posts remain unfilled that stress and pressure only increases.

To add insult to injury, laboratory aides who report to medical scientists earn more than them meaning that people take a pay cut for getting a promotion. You simply could not make it up. Is it any wonder that our medical science graduates are bypassing the public health system and being swallowed up by the private sector, particularly in the pharmaceutical sector? Of course, it is patients who suffer most from this brain drain. The Government along with every political party signed up to Sláintecare, which is all about enhancing patient experience in a strong public health system with well-respected public health workers throughout the system. However, this will never become a reality unless we deal with the deterioration in job quality and pay disparity in healthcare professionals.

As we speak, tens of thousands of patients are anxiously awaiting new dates for cancelled appointments with many having already waited months or even years in some cases. The HSE, the Department of Health and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform must put a meaningful proposal on the table to prevent a repeat of this. While I am glad to see that the apparatus of the State is being utilised, a sincere and meaningful proposal must be put on the table to address medical scientists' legitimate concerns; it cannot be more of the same. Without this it is difficult to see how further strike action can be averted and this would have very far-reaching implications for patients and the public health system at large.

How can the Government ever expect to honour its commitments to repatriate CervicalCheck samples if it cannot recruit or retain staff? It is ludicrous that we are still outsourcing to private laboratories at enormous financial cost and potential risk to patients while doing little to attract the staff needed to build up our own capacity. This, along with the overriding need of patients, must be the impetus for an early resolution. Positive platitudes about front-line workers will no longer cut it. Our healthcare professionals deserve better. They will not stick around unless they are respected, not just by words but by action over their pay and conditions.

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