Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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579. To ask the Minister for Health the number of additional nursing staff required in hospitals in order to implement the recommendations of the framework for safe nurse staffing and skill mix. [45017/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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In April this year I launched the Final Report and Recommendations by the Taskforce on Staffing and Skill Mix on Phase I of the Framework for Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill Mix.

The Framework sets out, for the first time in Ireland, a methodology to determine the appropriate number of nurses and healthcare assistants required for our medical/surgical wards. Results from the pilots did indicate that additional resources, both nursing and healthcare assistants, were required in those pilot sites. These were met through a mix of additional recruitment and agency conversion.

The Framework determines the required nurse staffing and skill mix by matching the nursing resource to the type and number of patients on an individual ward and individual patients’ needs. Therefore accurate estimates will only become available when the implementation plan, currently being developed in the HSE, is fully developed.