Written answers

Wednesday, 29 September 2010

Department of Health and Children

Health Care Professionals

11:00 pm

Photo of Joe CareyJoe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 558: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if she will consider relaxing the criteria for qualifying to practice thereby allowing college graduates to play a more immediate role in delivering their skills to those who most need them on the frontline in view of the lack of appropriately qualified therapists in this country and the difficulties being experienced by the Health Service Executive in recruiting personnel in vital areas such as speech and language, occupational and physiotherapy, a process which is resulting in long waiting lists to access services. [31819/10]

Photo of Mary HarneyMary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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There has been a growing demand for, and investment in, therapy services over the last number of years. A particular priority for my Department and the Department of Education and Skills in recent years has been the expansion of the supply of therapy graduates. The Government has 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. Clinical education is an essential component of the therapy degree programmes. Undergraduate students from the therapy professions must complete up to 1000 clinical placement hours as part requirement for their undergraduate qualification. The current minimum standards for the education of therapy graduates provides that each student will complete sufficient hours or fieldwork to ensure the integration of theory into practice. These placements are arranged to ensure that all students have adequate exposure to key aspects of practice in relevant settings and are fully necessary to equip and enable health and social care professional graduates to practice safely and in a manner which will ensure the provision of high-quality interventions, meeting the challenges of increasingly complex and evolving care for service users, whilst providing the highest level of patient care and service.

With regard to the continued recruitment of therapy professionals, my Department has written to the Health Service Executive setting out the overall approved employment control ceiling for 2010. As part of this approval, written confirmation has been provided to the HSE that the general moratorium on recruitment, promotion and the payment of acting up allowances does not apply to specific designated grades. Delegated sanction has been given to the HSE for the creation and filling of frontline posts including speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy posts. The approval indicated that vacancies in existing posts in these grades may continue to be filled. New posts may also be created in these grades, up to a specified limit, provided that the HSE is satisfied in each case that there is no scope to redeploy an equivalent post from the hospital sector to the primary and community care sector. This moratorium exemption provides for an increase in the number of therapy posts, in line with Government policy, in order to meet the requirements of integrated care delivery and primary care needs particularly in respect of children at risk, the elderly and those with disabilities.

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