Written Answers Nos. 756-770
756. Deputy Noel Grealish asked the Minister for Health the number of HSE health care support assistants nationally, by LHO and CHO; the number of such vacant posts, by LHO and CHO; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24226/23]
View answerAs these are operational matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
757. Deputy Noel Grealish asked the Minister for Health the measures that have been taken to address employment issues in the home care/help sector to address home support shortages; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24227/23]
View answerIn order to examine the significant workforce challenges in the home-support and nursing home sectors in Ireland, Minister Butler established the cross-departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group in March 2022. Working closely with key stakeholders, the Advisory Group made 16 recommendations to address the challenges in frontline carer roles in the home support and long-term residential care sectors.
Their report was published in October 2022 with 16 recommendations across the areas of recruitment, pay and conditions of employment, barriers to employment, training and professional development, sectoral reform, and monitoring and implementation.
Minister Butler has endorsed the Advisory Group’s recommendations. Implementation has commenced. The first recommendation no. 9 was implemented in December 2022 with the announcement of the authorisation of 1,000 employment permits for non-EU/EEA home support workers.
Implementation of the recommendations will be overseen by a cross departmental Implementation Group, chaired by the Department of Health. The Department is engaging with recommendation owners to define an implementation plan.
A detailed implementation plan will be published containing steps involved in delivering the recommendations in the coming months. It is envisaged that the implementation group will meet quarterly and publish progress reports thereafter.
758. Deputy Noel Grealish asked the Minister for Health the number of non-EU carers who have taken up work permits to work in the care industry in Ireland; the total number of permits available; the reasons for the poor uptake; the steps he intends to take to improve the situation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24228/23]
View answerThe Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment provided access to the General Employment Permit for the role of Health Care Assistant in June 2021.
The Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment have confirmed that in 2022, 2,860 Employment Permits were issued to Health Care Assistants and 16 employment permits were issued to Home Carers. So far this year, 947 employment permits have issued to Health Care Assistants and 68 employment permits have issued to Home Carers. There is a quota of 1,000 employment permits for Home Carers. There is no quota for Health Care Assistants.
To examine the significant workforce challenges in the home-support and nursing home sectors in Ireland, Minister Butler established the cross-departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group in March 2022. Working closely with key stakeholders, the Advisory Group made 16 recommendations to address challenges in frontline carer roles in the home support and long-term residential care sectors.
In October 2022, the Strategic Workforce Advisory Group acknowledged that, with an unemployment rate of 4.2%, providers who are seeking to recruit care-workers are going to continue to face staff-shortages. After extensive consultation with key stakeholders, the Strategic Workforce Advisory Group recommended the removal of home-support workers from the Ineligible Occupations List to enable providers to recruit care-workers from outside the EU and EEA (Recommendation 9). The arrangement for employment permits for home-support workers came into force in December 2022 and replicates those currently in place for Health Care Assistants in nursing homes, with an upper threshold of 1,000 work-permits; a stipulation for a minimum two-year contract; a minimum salary for home-support workers of €27,000 per annum based on a 39-hour week; and a minimum continuous shift-length per working day of 4 hours.
The uptake of work permits is being monitored by the Department of Health. As implementation of the recommendations of the Strategic Workforce Advisory Group progresses it is envisaged that a number of the other recommendations will be complementary to Recommendation 9 and will result in an increase in uptake of work permits in the home care sector.
759. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Health when a new GP will be appointed to a location (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24242/23]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
760. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Health when Tender 2023 will be resolved (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24245/23]
View answerAs this is an operational matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.
761. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Minister for Health if he will provide an update on the promised return of nursing staff to Curlew Road health centre; if he will clarify whether staffing levels have increased; when the health centre will have a full complement of staff back to deliver much-needed health services to the population of Drimnagh; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24253/23]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
762. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Health if his Department and public bodies/agencies that operate under his remit have policies in place to install artificial structures that provide shelter and habitat space for wild species, such as, but not limited to, insect hotels, bat boxes, nesting towers and beehives; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24264/23]
View answerMy Department's 'Green Team' investigates options to encourage biodiversity within Miesian Plaza. This year, we provided 'bee friendly' seed packets to staff in support of World Bee Day (20/05/2023) and International Day for Biological Diversity (22/05/2023).
The landlord of Miesian Plaza has installed the three commercial blocks with green sedum roofing. Sedum roofing is an organic blanket of seasonal flowers and succulent plants, ensuring year-round growth and biodiversity. In addition, there are low maintenance planted areas that encourage bee and butterfly activity as well as providing shelter and habitat space.
I have forwarded your question to the HSE for direct reply. Details for other bodies under the aegis of my Department are operational matters for the bodies concerned and the Deputy should contact the relevant Director/CEO/Registrar directly.
763. Deputy Mattie McGrath asked the Minister for Health his views on the level of excess deaths currently being experienced in Ireland; if his Department has carried out an investigation into the trends and causes for the level of excess deaths; if not, if he will order an enquiry into the level, trends and causes of the excess deaths; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24273/23]
View answerThe Department of Health does not produce estimates of excess mortality. However, the Department works closely with the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) and other stakeholders to monitor estimates of excess mortality.
Excess mortality refers to the number of deaths from all causes during a period of time above and beyond what we would have normally expected to see.
The Department closely monitors estimates of excess mortality which are published by a range of different sources. A number of different methodologies have been developed by organisations and academics nationally and internationally to try to estimate levels of excess mortality and it should be noted that estimation methods vary widely, for example in the years used to estimate a baseline, how they estimate what are ‘expected’ deaths, the data source used for ‘actual deaths’ and whether statistical significance tests are applied. There is therefore no single source of data on estimated excess mortality.
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) has monitored excess mortality in Ireland since 2009, using registered deaths data reported to HPSC on a daily basis from the General Register Office (GRO). HPSC continues to participate in EuroMOMO for Ireland, a European mortality monitoring activity, aiming to detect and measure excess deaths related to seasonal influenza, pandemics and other public health threats. The HPSC provide an update on estimated excess mortality in their Weekly Influenza Surveillance Report.
The latest analysis of all registered deaths in Ireland up to 19 February 2023, using the standardised EuroMOMO algorithm has shown the following statistically significant excess mortality in December 2022 and January 2023:
• Excess Pneumonia and Influenza mortality over four consecutive weeks (weeks 51 2022-2 2023), reaching moderate levels during week 52 2022 and week 1 2023.
• Low level excess all-cause mortality in all ages over three consecutive weeks (weeks 51 2022–week 1 2023).
• Excess all-cause mortality in the 65-year age group over five consecutive weeks (weeks 50 2022-2 2023), reaching moderate levels during week 52 2022.
• Excess all-cause mortality in the 75-84-year age group over six consecutive weeks (weeks 49 2022-2 2023), reaching moderate levels during weeks 51 and 52 2022.
• Low level excess all-cause mortality in the 85-year age group over three consecutive weeks (weeks 51 2022-week 1 2023)
These data are provisional due to the time lag with death registration in Ireland. This means data on excess mortality in recent months will continue to be updated as additional information becomes available. A country-specific adjustment function was applied to correct for the typical lag in registrations of deaths in Ireland (the legal period for death registration in Ireland is three months). Nonetheless, estimates of excess mortality for the most recent weeks are reported with some uncertainty and should be interpreted with caution.
HPSC anticipates that when further deaths are registered over the coming weeks, additional excess mortality for the 2022/2023 winter period will be observed. It is likely that this excess mortality will be observed for at least a 6-week period in December 2022 and January 2023.
It is important to note that excess mortality has been observed during previous periods when influenza viruses circulated at high levels in Ireland, for example in winter 2017/2018 which has previously been characterised as a severe flu season, and during certain periods of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As we have experienced a winter of high levels of influenza cases and hospitalisations, it would not be unexpected to see excess mortality. Influenza activity was at very high levels in Ireland during December 2022 and early/mid-January 2023, with a high number of influenza hospitalisations reported. Other important factors that may impact excess mortality include the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, circulation of other respiratory viruses, impacts of cold weather, and an ageing population.
Excess mortality has also been observed in other European countries over the course of winter 2022/2023. In Europe, the overall pooled EuroMOMO estimates of all-cause excess mortality in all age groups for the participating European countries have shown elevated mortality in all age groups for late 2022/early 2023 with excess mortality declining recent weeks.
Separately, Eurostat publishes monthly estimates of excess mortality for EU (and some non-EU) countries. This data only incudes excess mortality estimates from January 2020 onwards. Eurostat use the following methodology, ‘The excess mortality indicator simply takes the number of people who died from any cause, in a given period, and compares it with a historical baseline from previous years in a period which was not affected by the pandemic. In this case, the baseline consists of the average number of deaths that occurred in each month during the period 2016-2019’. The methodology does not require a statistically significant difference to report excess deaths.
In relation to data for Ireland, it is important to note that data from 2020 onwards is based on data provided by the CSO based on a web-scraped series from rip.ie. The comparison baseline (2016-2019) is built using official data on registered deaths. Caution is required in interpreting this indicator.
The latest data published by Eurostat (published 17 February 2023), refers to deaths in December 2022. Eurostat estimates that the EU (25) experienced additional deaths of 19% above baseline. It is estimated that Ireland experienced 25.4% additional deaths. Across Europe, the countries with the highest estimated additional deaths in December were Iceland (43.1%), Germany (37.3%) and Austria (27.4%).
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) publishes official statistics on mortality in Ireland and publishes quarterly and yearly statistics on registered deaths through their Vital Statistics publications. The latest published data is for Quarter 2 2022 and data is provisional. Provisional data for deaths registered in Quarter 3 2022 will be published in March and for deaths registered in Quarter 4 2022 in June. This will include data on cause of death and allow more detailed analysis of mortality trends in this period.
The Department of Health is actively monitoring and reviewing all available data on mortality as it becomes available and supports the clear national commitment to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular with a view to ensuring the State’s preparedness for future public health threats.
764. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Health the number of radiographers in each hospital that have left their positions to transfer to the NHS from 1 September 2022 to 16 May 2023, in tabular form; and the number that have indicated they plan to transfer. [24278/23]
View answerAs this is an administrative matter for the Health Service Executive, the HSE has been asked to respond directly to the Deputy.
765. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Health if he will provide a timeline for the rolling out of post cataract care by the HSE to its primary eye care clinics; if these clinics have the required resources in place for same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24287/23]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
766. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Health if he will confirm whether privately owned community optical practices will be included in the rollout of post-cataract care by the HSE to its primary eye care clinics; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24288/23]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
767. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Health the dentists in Clare registered to provide services under the dental treatment services scheme, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24289/23]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
768. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Health the treatments covered under the dental treatment services scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24290/23]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
769. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Health the financial breakdown of monies paid to dentists in Clare under the dental treatment services scheme in the past two years, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24291/23]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
770. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Health the cross-border treatment options that are available with respect to dental services between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24292/23]
View answerAs this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.
