‘Significant increases’ in health staff needed for ageing population – report

By Cillian Sherlock, Press Association

Ireland will need more than 2,000 additional public health and community nurses by 2040, according to a new report.

The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) is projecting there will need to be “significant increases” in HSE primary and community care workforce requirements by the end of the next decade, when compared to 2022 levels.

Its HSE-funded research said the largest increases in workforce requirements are projected for services that currently focus on older people in the community – namely audiologists, occupational therapists, podiatrists and public health and community nurse – with average annual growth requirements of between 2-3.2 per cent out to 2040.

The largest projected increases in workforce requirements are observed in regions located in the east of the country.

A separate analysis of waiting list pressures indicates that more staff would be needed to address existing backlogs.

An additional 300 to 383 occupational therapist whole-time equivalents (WTEs) are projected to be required by 2040, alongside 242 to 315 physiotherapist WTEs.

The ESRI said Ireland will need between 117 and 208 speech and language therapist WTEs, as well as between 2,075 to 2,231 public health and community nurses.

Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill TD said: “Sláintecare is working to build a health and social care service that is sustainable for the future.

“Increasing capacity, both in terms of workforce and infrastructure, along with productivity measures is key to address Ireland’s long-term demographic challenges.

“These projections support our planning efforts to build capacity by understanding future workforce requirements to meet the needs of our people.”