Written answers
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Department of Health and Children
Health Service Staff
9:00 pm
Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 134: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the number of people working in the health services both part-time and full-time that are not included in the payroll system for dates (details supplied); if all these people are being paid through the accounts payable system; if not, the other ways they are paid; if everyone on the payroll system is included in the head count figure when calculating the total number of employees in the health services; if not, the number of people this is at 17 April 2008; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15502/08]
Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The main source of employment data in the health services is the Health Service Executive's Health Services Personnel Census. The census collects data on actual staffing levels for each staff grade in each health agency at a given point in time. The census is carried out quarterly at the end of March, June, September and December each year and is derived from payroll history in each agency. The health service employment ceiling approved by the Minister for Finance ceiling determines the health service census return, including the addition, or exclusion of certain grades (e.g. home helps) and agencies (see footnote 3 in the table below). Furthermore, overtime and agency costs are not captured in personnel census.
| Grade Category | National Hospitals Office | Primary Community | Corporate | Population Health | Total |
| Medical/Dental | 6,049 | 1,821 | 35 | 102 | 8,007 |
| Nursing4 | 21,481 | 17,353 | 161 | 14 | 39,009 |
| Health and Social Care Professionals | 6,257 | 9,333 | 54 | 61 | 15,706 |
| Management/ Administrative2 | 8,141 | 6,822 | 2,782 | 310 | 18,055 |
| General Support Staff | 7,131 | 5,338 | 431 | 1 | 12,901 |
| Other Patient and Client Care | 4,667 | 13,102 | 14 | 44 | 17,827 |
| Total | 53,726 | 53,769 | 3,477 | 533 | 111,505 |
| Notes | |||||
| 1 Excludes Home Helps. | |||||
| 2 Management/ Administrative includes staff who are of direct service to the public and include Consultant's Secretaries, Out-Patient Departmental Personnel, Medical Records Personnel, Telephonists and other staff who are engaged in front-line duties together with staff in the following categories Payroll, Human Resource Management (including training), Service Managers, IT Staff, General Management Support and Legislative and Information requirements. | |||||
| 3 The methodology under which employment figures are compiled changed during the course of 2007 with the addition of circa 4,000 wte not previously included in subsumed agencies such as the Health Service Executive-EA (HSEA), the Primary Care Reimbursement Service (GMSPB), Health Boards Executive (HeBe) and the Office for Health Management (now part of the HR function) together with many other posts in projects or post previously excluded such as HRBS/PPARS and Value-for-Money posts (all of which are largely in the Management/Administrative stream) together with the inclusion of student nurses and chaplains. This change was undertaken to represent health service employment on a like-for-like basis with employment ceilings and to more accurately represent a reconfigured health service's employment information. | |||||
| 4 The figure of 111,505 includes student nurses — if these are excluded the figure is 110,597. |
The Executive is the appropriate body to consider the matter raised by the Deputy. My Department has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Executive to arrange to have the matter investigated and to have a reply issued directly to the Deputy.
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