Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Clifford-Lee for raising the issue of the number of public health nurses currently serving the Dublin north area. Both the Minister, Deputy Harris, and I understand and appreciate the excellent care these nurses provide to local communities and are anxious to ensure appropriate staffing levels across the country.

The Department of Health published Working Together for Health - a National Strategic Framework for Health and Social Care Workforce Planning in 2017. This document provides an integrated, dynamic and multidisciplinary approach to workforce planning at all levels of the health service, and the HSE is currently working to operationalise the framework across the health sector. The implementation will be guided by the relevant work streams of the Health Services People Strategy 2015-2018 and Government policy on public service numbers and costs more generally.

As part of this overall workforce planning process, there are a number of recruitment and retention initiatives that seek to bolster nursing capacity. These include offering permanent posts to graduate nurses, continuing the process of pay restoration and offering new opportunities for career development. Turning specifically to public health nurses, these staff are recruited through the public health nurse graduate programme. Each August, the HSE places qualified nurses on placement in the different community health care organisations following an interview process. These nurses are referred to as the public health nurse student intake, and alongside their placement in the community, they participate in an academic programme. The students graduate one year following their entry into the programme and then take up permanent positions following their formal registration.

In 2017, 140 public health nurse students participated in the programme and will graduate in August. These graduates will be offered permanent public health nurse contacts in CHO 9, as follows: Dublin north - 12 public health nurse graduates; Dublin north west - 16 public health nurse graduates; and Dublin north-central - nine public health nurse graduates. In addition, 27 public health nurse posts in CHO 9 that are vacant as a result of retirements, long-term sick leave or career breaks will be filled through the 2018 public health nurse intake programme. These students will graduate in 2019 and will be offered permanent contracts across the Dublin north region. Moreover, I am pleased to be able to inform the Senator that, in recognition of the needs of the Dublin north area, CHO 9 has been allocated seven new development posts for public health nurse nursing. These students will take up their placement in August 2018 and will graduate in August 2019, when they too will be offered permanent contracts. This increased allocation of public health nurse posts will ease the pressures currently being experienced in Dublin north and help to further improve and enhance the delivery of primary care services in the local area.