Health Service Staff.

Thursday, 2 June 2005

Questions (134)

Richard Bruton

Question:

124 Mr. Bruton asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the number employed in the health services in 2004 and to date in 2005 and the way in which that has grown since 1997; the way in which these numbers are distributed between programmes, general hospital, long-stay facilities, disability, mental health, community health, doctors, nurses, paramedics and so on and administrative back up. [18898/05]

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Written answers

Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children (Ms Harney)

The quarterly health service personnel return collects employment information solely on the basis of grade and employing agency and does not include any data on a programme by programme basis as requested by the Deputy.

The latest available data is in respect of year end 2004. Between 1997 and year end 2004, there was an increase in the level of employment of 30,882, or 45.5%, excluding home helps, in whole-time equivalent terms. In this context, comparing employment levels at end-December 2004 to those at end-1997, there were 40.9%, 2,037, more medical and dental personnel, 116%, +6,892, more health and social care professionals and 25.5%, 6,967, more nurses employed in the health services in whole-time equivalent, WTE, terms. Employment growth in each of the grade categories of health service staff in the health board, voluntary hospital and intellectual disability sectors respectively is set out in the following table for the period requested by the Deputy. Caution should be exercised in comparing employment growth between grade categories, however, owing to some changes in their composition over the period.

As far as the balance between front line and administrative staff is concerned, almost two-thirds of health services personnel formally classified as management or administrative are involved in direct service provision to the public.

Public Health Service Employment by type of Administration1.

Type of Administration	Grade Category	31/12/1997	31/12/2004	Change end-1997 to end-2004
Health Boards	Medical/Dental	3,029	4,481	1,452
	Nursing	17,358	23,360	6,002
	Health and Social Care Professionals2	3,613	7,814	4,201
	Management/Administrative3	5,910	11,479	5,569
	General Support Staff and Other Patient and Client Care	13,491	18,642	5,151
	Sub-Total	43,401	65,776	22,375
Intellectual Disability Services	Medical/Dental	49	89	40
	Nursing	2,166	2,624	458
	Health and Social Care Professionals2	364	2,140	1,776
	Management/Administrative3	485	974	489
	General Support Staff and Other Patient and Client Care	3,211	4,783	1,572
	Sub-Total	6,275	10,610	4,335
Voluntary Hospitals	Medical/Dental	1,898	2,444	546
	Nursing	7,822	8,329	507
	Health and Social Care Professionals2	1,961	2,876	915
	Management/Administrative3	2,449	3,704	1,255
	General Support Staff and Other Patient and Client Care	4,035	4,985	950
	Sub-Total	18,165	22,337	4,172
Total		67,841	98,723	30,882

Source: Health Service Personnel Cenus.

Note 1: Excludes Home Helps.

Note 2: The professionalisation of Child Care Workers/House Parents resulted in grade category shift of these grades from Other Patient Care to Health and Social Care Professionals in 2001-2002. This change together with other changes of a less substantial nature have resulted in making direct comparisons over extended periods unreliable for these categories.

Note 3: Includes all management/administrative and clerical personnel. The Management/Administrative Category includes — staff who are of direct service to the public and include Consultant‘s Secretaries, Out-Patient Departmental Personnel, Medical Records Personnel, Telephonists and other staff who are engaged in front-line duties together with staff in the following categories Payroll, Human Resource Management (including training), Service Managers, IT Staff, General Management Support and Legislative and Information Requirements.