Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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484. To ask the Minister for Health if there are key performance indicators for public health nurse visits to pre-school children and to national school children; the responses he will take to those indicators; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32929/13]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The HSE Public Health Nursing service is responsible for child health monitoring, which involves a programme of screening interventions and supports for parents, starting at birth and extending through the pre-school years. In total there are nine timed age-related visits offered to children under the Child Health Surveillance Programme (CHSS). There are three associated KPIs regarding this service. The percentage of newborn babies visited by a PHN within 48 and 72 hours of birth and the percentage of children who have received their first developmental screening visit prior to their reaching ten months of age. The first two indicators are reported quarterly in arrears and the third is reported monthly in arrears. Latest national data indicate that 84% of newborns are visited by a Public Health Nurse within 48 hours of birth which rises to 96% for visits within 72 hours of birth.

Regarding developmental screening, although many individual areas have exceeded the 95% performance level, latest data available from the HSE indicates that the national performance level is 86.9%. The HSE has put a plan in place to address backlogs during the summer months. The situation is monitored carefully through the HSE’s monthly performance monitoring system.

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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485. To ask the Minister for Health the number of public health nurses who have or are caring for patients in excess of the recommended number of 2,500 patients; the geographical spread of same; the reasons for same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32933/13]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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While the ratio of one Public Health Nurse (PHN) to 2,500 of the population was recommended in a number of reviews of the PHN service, the provision of community services is ideally based on assessed health needs, rather than crude population ratios. In recent years the delivery of services in the community has been reconfigured to meet population health needs. This has involved the development of Primary Care Teams (PCTs) to ensure the delivery of services by multidisciplinary teams. Furthermore, the numbers of Registered General Nurses (RGNs) working in the community has increased.

There are currently 418 PCTs in place across the country and it is planned that 484 PCTs will be developed nationally by the end of 2013. At the end of May 2013, the average number of PHNs per PCT in place is 2.94 and the average number of RGNs is 0.87. There are a further 450 wholetime equivalent RGNs working in primary care services who are not attached to PCTs. The ratio of PHNs and RGNs combined in the community is 4.3 per 10,000 population.

In 2012, the HSE completed a detailed analysis of the numbers and distribution of public health nurses, registered general nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and speech and language therapists. The analysis revealed considerable variation across the HSE's 17 Integrated Service Areas in ratios of health care professionals to population, and to population numbers in areas of high deprivation. Based on this exercise, in 2013, Primary Care funding of €20 million, nationally, will be invested to support the recruitment of prioritised front-line primary care team posts and enhance the capacity of the primary care sector.

I issued approval to the HSE on the 27th March 2013 to commence recruitment to Primary Care Teams with immediate effect of the following additional 251 Primary Care posts:

- 70 Public Health Nurses;

- 37 Registered General Nurses;

- 51 Occupational Therapists;

- 46 Physiotherapists; and

- 47 Speech & Language Therapists.

The allocation and distribution of the above posts is based on bringing each Integrated Service Area, where staffing is below the national average, towards the national average.