Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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1473. To ask the Minister for Health the number of missing staff in each profession, grade, section and CHO location in the HSE, for example how many ward nurses are needed to achieve the correct patient to nurse ration in hospitals in CHO1; and how many psychiatrists are missing in each CAMHS area. [56403/23]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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1474. To ask the Minister for Health the number of persons in each profession and grade that have joined the HSE in each of the past ten years; and the number in each profession and grade that have left the HSE in each of the past ten years. [56404/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As this Parliamentary Question relates to an operational issue, it is a matter for the HSE. However, members of the Oireachtas are advised that the HSE is currently not in a position to answer PQs due to industrial action. It is hoped that normal services will resume soon. In the meantime, this Department will continue to refer PQs to HSE for their direct reply as soon as possible

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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1475. To ask the Minister for Health the workplace planning occurring within the Government to ensure that there are enough persons in each profession within the HSE each year; and the details of the number of places that have been provided in third level institutions in Ireland in each of the past ten years to supply each medical professional category in Ireland. [56405/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Health and Social Care workforce planning and ensuring an appropriate pipeline of suitably qualified healthcare professionals in Ireland is a top priority for the Government.

• Over the period 2011 to 2021 first year Medicine Enrolments grew from 1,129 to 1,403 – an increase of 24%.Source: Spending Review 2022: An Analysis of Medical Workforce Supply.
• Over the period 2011 to 2021 first-year Nursing and Midwifery places in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) grew from 1,570 to 2,032 – an increase of almost 30%. Source: Spending Review 2022 A System Dynamics Model of Nursing and Midwifery Workforce Supply.
• Over the period 2014-2021 first year student enrolments in Health and Welfare programmes grew from 6,000 to 6,855 an increase of 14%.Source: hea.ie/statistics

Department of Health officials engage on an ongoing basis with colleagues in the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and other relevant stakeholders to ensure that we train enough graduates with the skills necessary to support the delivery of health and social care services and to develop a strategic approach to workforce planning for the health sector.

In July 2022, Government signed off on an agreement with the Irish Medical Schools to increase the number of student places available annually for Irish/EU Students in Irish Medical Schools by 200 over the five years. This has seen an additional 60 EU students in September 2022, climbing to 120 in September 2023 and up to 200 by 2026.

An additional 662 student places have been provided in the Higher Education Sector on health-related courses in the academic year 2023/24. This includes approximately 200 student places across Nursing and Midwifery and all Allied Health Professionals in Northern Ireland.

Ireland is currently developing a Health and Social Care Workforce Planning Projection Model to address long-term workforce planning needs of health sector. The Key outcome of this project is that we will have necessary tools, processes, and technical capacity to produce rolling health and social care workforce planning action plans and implement targeted policy measures for health and social care workforce reform. The project will provide Health and Social Care workforce demand and supply projections spanning short, medium and long-term time horizons.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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1476. To ask the Minister for Health the number of medical professionals that leave Ireland each year; and if he has considered making it a stipulation of a college degree in each health service profession that each health service graduate practices in Ireland for at least five years before travelling abroad. [56406/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The HSE has undertaken a project using doctors Medical Council numbers to track the actual numbers of doctors leaving and returning to the Irish health system over time. Data was sourced from the National Doctors Training and Planning Doctors Integrated Management E-System (DIME). DIME records registration, training and employment details of all Consultant and Non-Consultant Hospital Doctors (NCHDs) in Ireland who are employed in the Public Service. As part of this work doctor retention was examined focusing on the risk of exit from the Irish system at the beginning and end of training i.e. following intern year and end of postgraduate training programme. The findings indicate that while there are patterns of high outward migration at various stages of NCHDs careers, there is a pattern of return with a high number returning to commence further post graduate training and/or take up a Consultant post in Ireland. This work was recently published in the Irish Journal of Medical Sciences link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11845-023-03288-8. Key findings are outlined below:

• Review of intern year 2015-2020 data indicates a trend of interns leaving the system immediately following intern year however a substantial number have returned to HSE within 2-3 years.
• 84% of interns who commenced intern training in 2015 subsequently commenced a Basic Specialist Training or General Practice (GP) training programme in subsequent years (2016-2021).
• Of those who completed BST training in 2017, 75% went on to higher specialist training (HST) in Ireland.
• In 2021, of the 2016 cohort of doctors who completed specialist training (excluding GP training programme) 68% are employed in Ireland and 32% are abroad or unknown.
• In Ireland it is very common for doctors who have completed postgraduate training to undertake a Fellowship or experience abroad before taking up a consultant post. When tracking retention, it is important to take into consideration this trend.

The National Doctor Training and Planning Office of the HSE are currently finalising an Annual Medicine Retention report for 2023, to be published in Q1 2024 which highlights the most recent data on doctor retention rates. In addition to the findings above the report highlights that there has been a substantial improvement in the retention rates of doctors who complete specialist training (excluding GP training) in the 2018 and 2019 cohorts with 75% and 78% respectively working in public or private posts in Ireland in 2023.

In relation to making it a stipulation of a college degree that health graduates practice in Ireland for at least five years before travelling abroad the Department of Health may consider examining this issue with a view to doing research regarding best practice in place in other jurisdictions which require graduates to work in their health services for a period following graduation.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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1477. To ask the Minister for Health the steps he has taken to support health care professionals to return to Ireland; and the number that have returned to Ireland in each of the past ten years. [56407/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The HSE has undertaken a project using doctor Medical Council numbers to track the actual numbers of doctors leaving and returning to the Irish health system over time. Data was sourced from the National Doctors Training and Planning Doctors Integrated Management E-System (DIME). DIME records registration, training and employment details of all Consultant and Non-Consultant Hospital Doctors (NCHDs) in Ireland who are employed in the Public Service. As part of this work doctor retention was examined focusing on the risk of exit from the Irish system at the beginning and end of training i.e. following intern year and end of postgraduate training programme. The findings indicate that while there are patterns of high outward migration at various stages of NCHDs careers, there is a pattern of return with a high number returning to commence further post graduate training and/or take up a Consultant post in Ireland. This work was recently published in the Irish Journal of Medical Sciences link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11845-023-03288-8. Key findings are outlined below:

• Review of intern year 2015-2020 data indicates a trend of interns leaving the system immediately following intern year however a substantial number have returned to HSE within 2-3 years.
• 84% of interns who commenced intern training in 2015 subsequently commenced a Basic Specialist Training or General Practice (GP) training programme in subsequent years (2016-2021).
• Of those who completed BST training in 2017, 75% went on to higher specialist training (HST) in Ireland.
• In 2021, of the 2016 cohort of doctors who completed specialist training (excluding GP training programme) 68% are employed in Ireland and 32% are abroad or unknown.
• In Ireland it is very common for doctors who have completed postgraduate training to undertake a Fellowship or experience abroad before taking up a consultant post. When tracking retention it is important to take into consideration this trend.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has analysed medicine graduates’ migration patterns using administrative data. Where a graduate was ‘not captured’ in any administrative data set, they are assumed to have emigrated. However, this is not a definitive indicator of emigration.

The 2011 cohort of graduates is the first group of graduates for which this analysis was conducted. Of this cohort:

• 35% were ‘not captured’ for at least one year in the 10 years since they graduated. Of these, 43% later returned.
• 14%, were ‘not captured’ for more than 8 years.