Written answers
Thursday, 8 May 2008
Department of Health and Children
Health Service Staff
5:00 pm
Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Question 188: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the number of new positions created within the Health Service Executive for each of the years from 2004 to date in 2008; and the breakdown per grade category of same in tabular readable form. [17706/08]
Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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Almost 130,000 people work full-time or part-time in our public health services. In recent years, the Government's ongoing high level of investment in health has achieved and maintained significant increases in the numbers of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals employed in the public health services. The Government has also invested heavily in the education and training of such personnel in order to secure a good supply of graduates to provide for the healthcare needs of the population into the future.
Subject to overall parameters set by Government, the Health Service Executive has the responsibility for determining the composition of its staffing complement. In that regard, it is a matter for the Executive to manage and deploy its human resources to best meet the requirements of its Annual Service Plan for the delivery of health and personal social services to the public. 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.
However, the Deputy may wish to note that the increases in the numbers employed in the public health service by grade category, from end 2004 to March 2008, are as follows:
| Table 1: Health Service Employment 2002-20081 (source: Health Service Personnel Census) | ||||||||||
| Grade category | 2004 | % Diff. between 2004 and 2003 | 2005 | % Diff. between 2005 and 2004 | 2006 | % Diff. between 2006 and 2005 | 2007 | % Diff. between 2007 and 2006 | Mar-08 | % Diff. between 2007 and Mar 2008 |
| Medical/Dental | 7,013 | 3.30% | 7,263 | 3.56% | 7,712 | 6.18% | 8,005 | 3.80% | 8,007 | 0.02% |
| Nursing | 34,313 | 1.65% | 35,243 | 2.71% | 36,737 | 4.24% | 39,006 | 6.18% | 38,047 | -2.46% |
| Health & Social Care Profess | 12,830 | 1.30% | 13,927 | 8.55% | 14,913 | 7.08% | 15,705 | 5.31% | 15,681 | -0.15% |
| Mngmt./Admin. | 16,157 | 2.60% | 16,680 | 3.24% | 17,262 | 3.49% | 18,043 | 4.52% | 17,930 | -0.63% |
| General Support Staff | 13,771 | -0.38% | 13,215 | -4.04% | 12,910 | -2.31% | 12,900 | -0.08% | 12,873 | -0.21% |
| Other Patient & Client Care | 14,640 | 7.32% | 15,580 | 6.42% | 16,739 | 7.44% | 17,846 | 6.61% | 17,759 | -0.49% |
| Total | 98,723 | 2.39% | 101,908 | 3.23% | 106,273 | 4.28% | 111,505 | 4.92% | 110,297 | -1.08% |
| 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 personnel 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. As a result of this change year-on-year figures are not comparable. | ||||||||||
| 4 Caution should be exercised in making grade category comparisons due to changes in category composition over time. | ||||||||||
| 5 Student nurses are included in the 2007 and 2008 employment ceiling on the basis of 3.5 students equating to 1 wholetime equivalent. The employment levels adjusted for student nurses on the above basis are 110,664 wte (Dec 07) and 110,156 wte (Mar 08). |
Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Question 189: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the number of staff employed within the Health Service Executive as of 1 May 2008; and the breakdown per grade category in tabular readable form. [17707/08]
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 which is derived from payroll history in each agency. The census collects data on actual staffing level for each staff grade in each health agency at a given point in time. Up to and including 2002 the census was conducted annually. Since 2003 the census has been carried out quarterly at the end of March, June, September and December each year. The data referred to in the question are unavailable as yet, however, the latest census data from the end of March are set out in the following table (source: Health Service Personnel Census):
| Health Service Personnel Census by Grade Category | |
| Grade Category | 31/03/2008 |
| Medical/Dental | 8,007 |
| of which Consultants | 2,214 |
| Nursing | 38,047 |
| Health and Social Care Professionals | 15,681 |
| Management/Admin | 17,930 |
| General Support Staff | 12,873 |
| Other Patient and Client Care | 17,759 |
| Total | 110,297 |
| Notes | |
| 1 Excludes Home Help. | |
| 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 Student nurses are included in the 2008 employment ceiling on the basis of 3.5 students equating to 1 wholetime equivalent. The employment level adjusted for student nurses on the above basis is 110,091 wte. |
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